Danny Phantom: Ghosts and shadows
by Cpt.Carnage
Summary: There are many variations to a well known story. Many share similarities, underneath everything is always the tale of one man or boy together with his two best friends. But what about those timelines where it all went a little differently? A tale where a single detail is changed, the boy doesn't receive ghost-powers, but doesn't let that stop him from being a hero. Far from it.
1. Chapter 1: Introduction

**Okay time for another story, first off all you all should know that this isn't your average Danny Phantom phanfic. In here the original story is completely overhauled and turned into something new. Some familiar elements will be present though and I will try to cover the entire series. (Try to!). Otherwise enjoy.**

 **Chapter 1: Introduction**

 _Clockwork once said there are infinite timelines, thus infinite possibilities_

 _Though every time certain details remain unchanged, every time there are the same details we all know_

 _Other details however changed, some drastically._

 _Yet there is always one man or boy rather, and his two friends._

 _Let's see what this timeline brings us…_

 **London, night**

It was a temperate and starry night at the end of May. There were some people on the street going out or returning home from a family visit. A quiet night all in all.

However unknown to most regular citizens there was someone who didn't quite believe in quiet night without trouble. Someone who was watching over no matter what.

Up above Parliament Square and the Westminster Bridge, on the very top of the Big Ben clock tower sat a man scanning the skyline. The man was clad in a high-tech armour, made up of the most advanced nanotechnology that wasn't even known to the public. The suit was mostly black though it had some white and neon green highlights however. The armour looked like it was build up out of pure muscle, its fibres running all over the man's body making a complex looking muscle structure that was only ever so often broken by metal plates and joints. The lower legs and arms were fully metal plated as well with a small screen build into the left gauntlet. Making the armour look even more sturdy. Over the suit he was wearing something like a trench coat made out of the same materials reaching to just below his knees and with a hood covering most of his helmet, though one could still clearly see the glowing green eyes just underneath the rim.

The trench coat was special as well, not in a sense of colour because it was just plain black. It was special because it had a lot of attachments. The back was covered by metal plates and on his hips were two rocket thrusters making up a jump pack. Just above that was a metal cylinder that looked like a silver and neon green soup thermos. He also carried a hover board that was compacted so he could easily carry it around when not in use and a large ecto-gun higher on his back. But those weren't the only weapons he wore.

On his belt was a smaller long-barrelled pistol and another cylinder that could extend to the size of a fighting staff on his right hip and a knife sheath on his left respectively. The gun wasn't a normal one though. It had been especially designed for him. Inspired and looking just like a Desert Eagle Mark XIX - .357 magnum with a square barrel extension, this wasn't a ballistic weapon. This particular gun was an energy gun capable of firing stunning shots that could immobilize ghosts and by extension humans… or kill if set on a high enough power setting.

The man's black helmet covered his entire head and consisted of a filter like mouth piece, a faceplate with two narrow green glowing eye slits and two spiky antenna's on either side of his head by the ears.

By the public this man was known as by many names: Hunter, Reaper, you name it. But the name that most people including himself used was Phantom. One of the best ghost-hunters in the world. True he did have quite the reputation, even if he just appeared out of nowhere two years ago.

Unknown to the public was that this man was just a boy merely sixteen years old who went by the name Danny Fenton. Son of Maddie and Jack Fenton, two of the most successful ghost researchers on the planet and founders of Fentonworks.

One might be wondering why a sixteen year old is sitting on top of the Big Ben inside a high-tech nanosuit scanning for ghosts. Truth be told this didn't happen in just a day, this spans back…a long time.

It all began over twenty years ago during Danny's parent college years. During those years his parent were known as complete nutjobs, and it's easy to understand why. Both were obsessed by the would be existence of ghosts, and they were going to prove that they did. They also had one good friend called Vladimir Masters or just Vlad as they called him. Together they worked months on a device which the three of them believed would punch a hole into the Ghost dimension or Ghost Zone. This project would be known as the proto-portal.

Although Vlad was more sceptical about the whole thing the three of them went through with it no matter what. But when they were finally ready to test the device a tragedy happened. During testing a mistake by Jack caused the portal to malfunction and Vlad, who was unfortunate enough to be right next to the portal was blasted in the face with an enormous amount of ectoplasmic energy. Vlad was rendered unconscious and ended up in the hospital afterwards. Vlad had contracted a disease Maddie identified as ecto-acne and was comatose for a while. Jack naturally blamed himself for it and swore he wouldn't rest until he had his best buddy back. Thanks to the combined efforts of Jack and Maddie Vlad recovered remarkably quickly and woke up only two months later as opposed to the predicted two years. Of course Vlad was angry at Jack in the beginning but when he heard about all the things he did to bring him back he quickly forgave his larger than life friend.

Later testing performed by the Fentons pointed out some complications though, it seemed that the blast had changed Vlad. Changed up to a genetic level. He began showing signs of ghostly powers, later they discovered the accident had turned Vlad into a Human-Ghost hybrid. Vlad freaked out when he learned he was essentially half dead but he got back up due to the support of his both friends. Together they learned how to control Vlad's powers and in the process they learned a lot about ghosts. In the end they became lifelong friend, bonded together by the experience. The three did many thing together, Vlad was there when they developed their first piece of ghostly technology. He was Jack's best man at his wedding with Maddie. He supported them when they founded their very own company: Fentonworks. A company specialized in ghostly tech and their applications. Soon it grew into a multinational company with applications in ghost defence, security and medical technology. With a little help of Vlad.

Vlad meanwhile founded his own company named Dalv co. and made his own fortune. Though the three friends never grew apart. They supported each other at every turn, even when the Fenton's moved to London for their company. Although Vlad was saddened to see his friends leave he understood that this was the way of life. And with his ever developing ghost powers he was only hours away.

The three friend were never truly separate, that had been apparent in college. When the time came when the Fentons got their first child, a daughter named Jasmine they decided that Vlad could be a real part of their family. In turn Vlad was asked to be their kids' godfather. Vlad was overjoyed and accepted. Since then both Fenton children have seen him as uncle Vlad.

Years passed and it became apparent that the Fentons were a true family of geniuses. Jasmine or Jazz excelled at her studies and took an interest in psychology. Danny was smart as well, taking up advanced subjects in school and taking an interest in his parents' profession. When his fourteenth birthday rolled around his parent were setting the last hand at their new and improved ghost portal. An improved version of their proto-portal that turned Vlad into a halfa. This time however they were certain it would work. Danny had chosen to help out his parents with the project seeing he had a reasonable knowledge of the advanced physics and engineering to necessary to understand the project. He was the one who identified a fatal flaw in the design, the on/off button was placed inside the portal. If this had gone unnoticed it could have killed someone. The button was moved and the portal was successfully activated, punching a stable hole in the Ghost Zone.

Now they had another problem though. Due to their portal experiment they had caused the barrier between the human world and the Ghost Zone to become thinner. This caused the release of more and more ghost into the human realm. Some of them were of the more malevolent kind.

In the beginning Jack and Maddie tried to catch them themselves but they quickly came to the conclusion that they were better scientist than ghost hunters. And so we come to the point Danny takes up the mantle as ghost hunter.

His parents objected at first but when they saw the amount of skill and resolve he showed during training sessions they realised they probably wouldn't be able to stop him. So they began supporting him and began developing and constructing the various weapons and equipment he would need. It took Danny some getting used to the first few months but after some practice and training from Vlad who had come over especially to train and guide his godson he became one of the best in the business. Hence beginning the reputation of the Phantom.

Now he was sitting on top of the clock tower scanning the city while his right hand hovered over the screen in his left gauntlet, controlling his music player while he listened to the modern tunes of Humpty Dumpty and the classics of British rock like The Rolling Stones, Deep Purple and Pink Floyd.

After a little while his HUD beeped and indicated the scanner had picked up an ectoplasmic signature. The radar pointed north and Danny got to work. He shut off his media player and grabbed his hover board from his back. The board deployed to full size on command and powered up. Danny threw the board on front of him and jumped after it, off the clock tower.

The board stabilized itself and Danny landed expertly on it, the engines roared to life and he shot off into the night. Drawing the gazes of a few bobbies (police officers) on the ground.

"What the bloody hell was that?" A rather young officer asked.

The older, more experienced officer looked at him incredulously and then chuckled in realisation. "Ah, right. You're a rookie." He laughed. He then pointed up to where Danny just had been. "That my dear boy, was the Phantom."

"The ghost hunter?" the young one asked.

"Aye, he has this habit of sitting on top of the clock tower sometimes. Most of the times we never even knew he was up there." The veteran said.

"Why did he leave like that? It sounded like he was in a hurry." The younger said.

"Aye, when that happens it is very likely he found something." The older said.

"Like…a ghost…?" the young one asked nervously.

The older one chuckled. "Most likely, though we'll never know for sure. Most of the times he grabs them well before the new even catches wind of it."

"Shouldn't we call him in? He technically is a vigilante?" The young one asked uncertainly.

"Nah, we'll never catch him. And he's a reckoned ghost hunter actually. As long as he obeys the standard law he's free to go. Don't worry, he doesn't hurt anyone and knows what he's doing." The old one said.

"I guess you're right." The young one concluded.

Meanwhile Danny was flying northbound, zoning in onto the ecto-signature. The scanner pinpointed three different level three ghosts over the National Gallery at Trafalgar square. Danny slowed down his flight and landed on the National Gallery roof silently. His hover board compacted itself again and Danny put it away on his back. Then he pulled his plasma-rifle and activated his suit's cloaking engine.

See there was a reason why the suit was made entirely out of high-tech nanotechnology. Not only gave it excellent protection against any attack it also had been made specifically to completely cloak the wearer, rendering Danny completely invisible. He crept around the domed roof and saw three green spectres floating just above the roof only ten meters away looking down through one of the glass ceilings. He charged and aimed his weapon and dropped his cloaking, revealing his presence to the three ghosts.

"Freeze!" Danny shouted.

The ghosts were very surprised and made a little jump so to speak and turned to the approaching Danny, who had his gun pointed directly at them. The ghost's eyes betrayed that they were afraid, after all they were only level three in power. One of them was smaller and his behind the two bigger ones.

"What are you doing here?" Danny asked commandingly.

"Please don't hurt us…" The first said with a scared ghostly echo.

Danny realized that this probably weren't malevolent ghosts and lowered his weapon slowly. There was a low whine when the weapon powered down slightly.

"I won't hurt you if you don't mean harm." Danny said still with a commanding tone.

"Dad… is that man going to hurt us?" The small ghost in the back said.

Now Danny fully lowered his weapon. He began to understand what he had in front of him, you see some ghost are essentially dead souls who had unfinished business in their lives. And he had a feeling this group might be a very tragic story.

"I'm sorry let's try this again. What are you three doing here?" Danny asked in a much gentler tone.

"We're sightseeing, we always wanted to travel the world as a family." The second said.

'Ah, they're a family who wanted to see the world but died before they could finish their goal.' Danny thought.

"Ah, so you don't mean any harm I suppose." Danny said while putting away his rifle.

"No, we just want to see the world." The first said.

"That is acceptable." Danny said.

The little one had now come floating out of his hiding place behind what Danny thought to be the little ones parents and curiously floated up to him. The two bigger ones looked nervous, Danny couldn't blame them though.

The little one eyed him from all corners. "Who are you sir?" he asked.

Danny chuckled. "I'm known by many names little one. But most of you will know me as Phantom, the ghost hunter." He said.

The three recoiled, fearful of the man in front of them. Ghost hunters were known to catch and kill indiscriminately, though truthfully that was just the GIW. "you're a hunter? But why are you letting us go?" the first asked.

Danny signed. "Not all ghost hunters are hell bent on destroying ghosts. That is only a small and hated part of the community. Most of us just catch the dangerous and malevolent ones, the rest we leave in peace. We just want to understand." Danny explained.

"Oh…thank you…" The first said.

"You're welcome. Any other places you want to go?" Danny asked while turning around to leave.

"Uh…yes. We want to see the Tower of London. Do you know where it is?" The second asked.

Danny turned back around and pointed to the east. "It's that way. Just follow the Thames and you'll find it." He said and then turned around. "Stay out of trouble." He called back.

The three ghosts nodded and flew off, leaving Danny alone on the roof.

Then his radio came to life. "Cerberus base to Phantom…come in Phantom…"

That voice was his sister's, Jazz. His sister was four years older than him and as much of a genius like anyone in the family. Graduating college early with a degree in psychology and working on a doctorate in paranormal sciences while working Fentonworks in the meantime. She had been there when Danny took up the mantle of ghost hunter for the first time. She had been strongly against it at first but later succumbed to the fact that Danny wouldn't stop. Since then she has been actively helping him with his hunting. Handling communications with Danny, monitoring spectral activity on the larger scanners and feeding him tactical information when necessary. It was also her idea to use a highly encrypted radio signal to communicate, making sure his identity was never discovered.

"This is Phantom, hearing you loud and clear. What's up Cerberus base…?" Danny asked through the radio.

"How is it going over there little brother… scanner picked up three signals…" Jazz asked over the radio.

"They were nothing, non-malevolent ghosts who were just sightseeing…" Danny said while looking over Trafalgar square. "Any news you want to give me…?" He asked.

"Yeah, mom and dad said to call you home if possible… they said they had an important announcement…" Jazz briefed.

"Alright, I'll be there soon…" Danny said.

"Good, Cerberus base out…" Jazz said.

Danny grabbed his hover board from his back and deployed it. He jumped on when the board was steadily hovering but he didn't leave immediately. He first activated his cloaking again rendering him and his board invisible, then he shot of into the night. Silent like a leaf in the wind.

Some might be wondering why he didn't catch or destroy the three ghosts he encountered. You see over the years the Fentons learned that only a very small fraction of the ghost population is malevolent. Most of them just want to be left alone and complete their obsessions so they can move on. Jazz had done multiple psychological studies on this phenomenon and Danny swore that he would act responsible. After all most ghosts were human once, he found it fair to only attack and catch those who caused harm to others. Unfortunately this philosophy wasn't followed by everyone.

About twenty minutes later Danny arrived at his family's house in the more quiet area outside of downtown London. Where the houses weren't so close together and people couldn't see him. The house was more of a sizable mansion, complete with a large garden so he could land without being seen. His parents bought the house when Fentonworks became a successful multinational and transformed into their very own private laboratory. Underneath the house was a sizable array of labs and garages for all of the project his parent worked on. But the crown piece was the functioning Ghost portal in the centre of the lab.

Danny dropped his cloaking as no-one could see him here and walked inside into the kitchen and then into the living room where Jazz was seated reading yet another book on psychology. When she heard him come in she raised her head and greeted his in the light British accent they all possessed.

"Evening little brother." Jazz said cheerfully.

Danny brought his right hand up to his helmet and clicked the button by his right ear to open the faceplate. The glowing green eyes deactivated and the helmet opened. The mouthpiece lowered down while the rest of the faceplate slid up to reveal Danny's ocean blue eyes and black hair. "Hi Jazz; are mom and dad around?" he asked.

"They're still down in the lab but I guess they'll come up soon enough." Jazz said.

"Alright, say I'm going to change really quickly and then I'll join you." Danny said.

"Fine by me." Jazz said.

Danny then made his way out the living room towards his own bedroom to change out of his armour, take a quick shower and put on a fresh set of clothes. In his room he had this cylindrical storage tube where he fitted his armour in and put his weapons inside for charging. Normally he would make a stop in the lab to empty his thermos but seeing that he hadn't caught any ghosts today that wasn't necessary. Once everything was in place he pressed a hidden button on his nightstand and the storage unit contracted into the floor. Hidden safely. Afterwards Danny jumped in his bathroom for a well-deserved shower.

Another twenty minutes later Danny was finished with his shower and was on his way to the living room where Jazz and his parents were likely waiting. He was now wearing some blue jeans, a red shirt and a black hoody. On his feet he was wearing black slippers. When he came in the living room he could already make out the shapes of his parents both sitting in the couch across from Jazz wearing their ever present orange and blue jumpsuits covered by white lab coats they always wore when busy in the lab.

Jack was first to notice Danny walking in the room and greeted his son. "Hey Dann-o! how was the hunt?" He asked.

"Meh, nothing special. I encountered a group of non-malevolent level threes." Danny said while sitting down next to his sister. "I pointed them toward the Tower. They were sightseeing."

"That' good son, a night without a ghost-attack is a good night." Jack said.

"Indeed…" Danny answered.

"Now kids, you obviously know why we called you here." Maddie began.

"You said you had something to tell us." Jazz said.

"Yes Jazzy-pants! We have some pretty big news!" Jack said.

"Now that the company is running stable we have more time for our research and you of course. Now we have noticed that ghost activity is declining in London and added to that we have been thinking to go back to our roots." Maddie said.

"Meaning that…?" Danny asked.

"We're moving!" Jack said enthusiastically

"WHAT!?" Both Jazz and Danny shouted.

"Where?!" Danny asked.

"You kids remember you always wanted to see uncle Vlad more? Well we've discovered that ectoplasmic activity is on the rise back in the States. And we wanted to move back to the place where it all began." Maddie said.

"But…what of my doctorate?" Jazz asked.

"You can take the Fenton-jet back here when you need to present it in December pumpkin." Jack said.

"But we'll be closer to uncle Vlad?" Danny asked.

"Much closer. Vladdie can come visit us at any time, he'll be welcoming us when we arrive there." Jack said.

"What do you kids think?" Maddie asked.

"I'm game. London is quasi secure by means of ghost attacks, the bobbies are equipped to handle threats and a change of scenery would be nice… maybe I can make some real friends there as well." Danny said solemly.

Maddie nodded knowing what her son meant. In the past Danny's "friends" only hung out with him because the Fentons were semi-famous and had a lot of money. But Danny wanted friends who liked him for who he was, not the money they had.

"I'm sure you'll find somebody little brother." Jazz said offering her brother some comfort. Being a ghost hunter wasn't easy.

"What about you Jazzy? You okay with us moving?" Jack asked.

Jazz shrugged. "Eh, why not. I can finish my doctorate in the States as well and use the jet to come here. Question though, where are we going and when do we leave?" She asked.

Maddie smiled. "We plan to move out at the beginning of summer, about a month from now." She said. "Our new house will be in the new hot-spot of ectoplasmic activity,…Amity Park."

 **End of chapter one guys. This has been an idea I've been working on for a long time but I didn't want to publish until my other story had been finished, writing two stories at once creates problems. And now maybe for some background info.**

 **As you all will realize in this story Danny doesn't have any ghost powers. For as far as I'm concerned Vlad is the only half ghost in existence. The suit is based on several things: the bulk is inspired by the nanosuit from the Crysis games, it also looks like it except the extra metal plates on the arms and legs. The trench-coat comes from the character reaper from Overwatch. The helmet could be seen as a combination of Iron Man's and Ant Man's helmets and the rocket thrusters on his back is an idea I got from a game called Titanfall. Note: he can't use those thrusters to fly, just make very high and far jumps and use it to do wall runs like in the game. Alright have I said everything about the suit?**

 **Also I think it is pretty obvious Danny doesn't know Sam or Tucker yet but that will change very quickly. He does have a good relationship with his uncle Vlad though. As for the ghosts, Danny has been in the Ghost Zone a couple times and knows some of the ghosts or has heard of them. Otherwise the only interaction he had with them is through Vlad or in the field.**

 **About Fentonworks, officially the company makes and distributes ghost defence and security tech and works on several medical applications. They don't officially make weapons for obvious reasons, there are other companies doing that however. Like Axiom labs, Dalv co., FN Herstal and Meinhard weapons factory in Heilbronn used by the GIW. (All are fictional factories except FN, no offence intended.) Unofficially the Fentons have been building the weapons Danny uses and it is a big mystery for the world where the Phantom got them. Most think he build them himself. As for those guns think a generic Fenton weapon from the series for the plasma rifle and the earlier described pistol for…well pistol… For the sounds they make look for the plasma rifle from the Xcom enemy unknown game and the blaster sound from Jango Fett's WESTAR in Star Wars episode II.**

 **Phew, that was a lot of background.**

 **Anyway hope you enjoyed, let me know what you think and see you all next time.**


	2. Chapter 2: Moving to new places

**Chapter 2: Moving to new places**

 **Somewhere above the Atlantic ocean, noon**

About a month after the first time the move was announced the Fentons were on their way to Amity Park. Most of their possessions had already shipped out of Great-Britain towards the States. Right now they were on their way with their Fenton-jet and the last of their possessions. Namely the more sensitive ones, seeing that in the cargo hold was Danny's suit and a lot of weapons stored.

To avoid any attention Danny stopped appearing as the Phantom not long after the move was announced by his parents. For about a month now the Phantom had disappeared without a trace. There were many who speculated all over the net about his whereabouts, ranging from the normal excuses to the most ridiculous stories.

Right now Danny was sitting in one of the plane seats across from Jazz while his parents were flying the plane. In front of him was his laptop open on various blogs and news sites while the television in the plane was tuned to the BBC news network, reporting their daily dose of stories.

"Thank you for that report James, onto our next story. One of the greatest mysteries of the ghost-hunting community except the ghosts themselves, Phantom has been reported missing for about a month now. The almost legendary hunter vanished from his normal hunting grounds of London without a trace and for the moment no one has any clue as to why he's gone or where he is now. Andrew?" the news-anchor said.

"Thank you Bob, there are however some theories circling around on the net. While some are plausible, other are just plain lunacy." Andrew, one of the reporters said.

Danny had a little chuckle at this. Right now he had several of those blogs open on his laptop and the theories were indeed mad.

"Yeah, as if I'd be abducted by a ghost or secretly I am just a ghost and I'm just changing haunts." Danny laughed.

"Abducted would be a possibility Danny, though not for a month. And really… some people think you're a ghost yourself?" Jazz said.

"I just found it here." Danny said while pointing at his screen. "Though honestly this blog has been made by some tin-foil hat conspiracy theorist so I guess that doesn't count."

"As long as no-one makes the link with the Fentons I guess we're fine." Jazz added. "Let them have their conspiracy fun." She said putting exclamation marks on "conspiracy fun" with her fingers.

Meanwhile the news story had featured several ridiculous theories as well with the purpose of making the viewers laugh a bit.

"Now Andrew don't you think that last one is taking it a bit too far?" Bob the news anchor asked.

"I agree Bob, and I can't imagine what the man himself must think when he reads these. If he even reads them at all." Andrew responded.

'He is bloody amused by it…' Danny thought.

"I can't imagine anything else than Phantom laughing at them. On a different note though what do you think Andrew? Why would he be gone?" Bob asked.

"Personally I think he just took a break. He might be a ghost-hunter but he's still a human being in the end. I predict he might turn up again in a few weeks or months, I'll think the world can manage without him for a while." Andrew said.

"Thank you for the explanation Andrew. Up to our next…" The anchor continued but never got to finish when Danny shut the TV off.

"Quite scary how close they actually are to the truth." Danny said.

"Not to worry Danny, the simpler the explanation the harder it is to see. People won't even realize unless you'd take your helmet off right in front of a TV-camera." Jazz commented.

"Guess you're right." Danny said shutting his laptop.

"Danny… I'm always right." Jazz said sassily.

"Alright sass-queen, if you say so." Danny sarcastically remarked. He then laid himself down over the seat. "We're still going to be flying for a few hours so I'm taking a nap. Wake me when we're about to land." He said while closing his eyes.

"Sure little brother." Jazz replied before putting her attention back to the book in front of her.

Both sibling had a pretty close relationship seeing that their slightly wacko parents and their fame with Fentonworks made it hard to make real friends. Jazz had some in her high-school and college days but Danny had it harder. Even more after he took up the mantle as Phantom, he had a hard time making friends. Seeing that most looked to the money the family had and didn't look to his personality. They both hoped they could change that in Amity Park, that they could find some people they could truly trust.

The silver-green private plane with the Fentonworks logo stamped on the hull kept on soaring through the sky, on its way to a family's new home.

 **Amity park outskirts, late afternoon**

"I'd say…very impressive." Danny said while observing his family's new home.

They had arrived at Chicago International airport a few hours prior and unloaded all their personal cargo in their new RV, the Fenton Ghost Assault Vehicle or GAV for short. Which had been shipped out a few weeks earlier and was made sure it was ready and set at the airport. After everything was unloaded and the family went through customs, while successfully hiding al the weapons and tech as company property they were on their way to Amity Park. After a few hours of driving the family got off the speedway and rode into the outskirts of Amity Park. They arrived at an area with large houses and properties placed far from each other, their house was one of them. Now they were standing in front of a large, white and black mansion with two-stories and a bloody large garden as Danny would phrase it.

In the front yard were several sealed containers with all the furniture and belongings of the Fentons that had shipped out earlier. The house looked plain now, but Danny knew that would only last for so long. He had seen the building plans and there was still a lot that needed to be added to the house. Like the enormous laboratory and vehicle hangar as well as the new portal room under the property, the ops-centre, all kinds of scanners and communications equipment on the roof, the ghost shield and some more tech in the back yard Danny didn't know what it was yet.

"Indeed Dann-o! This will be our new home!" Jack boomed behind him.

"And look at Amity, it's like it never changed since we left." Maddie said while looking at the city.

Danny chuckled. "Probably because it hasn't." He remarked earning a laugh from his sister.

"Nonsense sweetie, lots of thing have changed. I heard there were some new additions to the parks and the observatory, Axiom Labs wasn't here when we left and the city has expanded a lot actually." Maddie said.

"I was just joking mom, it looks nice here. Though they drive on the wrong side of the road." Danny said.

"Well, you're going to have to get used to it son. Come on, let's go inside! You kids can see your new rooms!" Jack said enthusiastically.

"And we can get to unpacking." Maddie added.

And so the four Fentons strode to their new front door and unlocked it to step in for the first time. The house was very spacious and yet quite cosy. The basic furniture was present: couches, tables, chairs, cupboards, cabinets and lots of other things. Apart from that the house was still quite empty, so after a brief inspection of the ground floor the family went back outside and unlocked one of the big containers with their belongings. Ready to unpack everything and give it its rightful place in their new house.

For about an hour the four Fentons went inside and outside to ship everything into the house and worried little over placing it yet. While they were so busy none of them saw the black limousine pulling unto the driveway. Out of the vehicle stepped a man very well known by all members of the family. His white hair that usually was well groomed and slicked back over his head was a bit more unruly and in place of the black business suit he usually wore in public was now a more casual clothes style complete with a Packer's shirt and some white running shoes.

The man walked to the front door and looked inside, he was met with the sight of the Fentons impersonation an ants-nest with all their running around with moving boxes. He leaned against the door frame to admire the sight for a moment and then cleared his throat to draw the four family members who smiled immediately when they saw him.

"Sorry to pop in unannounced." He chuckled. "But I wanted to be the first to welcome you to the neighbourhood." He said detaching himself from the doorframe.

"Uncle Vlad!" Both Danny and Jazz shouted happily.

"Hi kiddo's, how was the flight?" Vlad asked.

"It was fine." Danny said while walking up to Vlad, he then gave the older man a tight hug. "It's good to see you again."

"I'm glad to see you too Daniel." Vlad said returning the hug. "And you too Jasmine." He said as Jazz approached.

"Hey uncle, how are you doing?" Jazz greeted.

"I'm good Jasmine, how's the doctorate coming up?" Vlad asked while releasing Danny.

"It's going well, I'm almost finished." Jazz answered.

"Good, keep up the hard work." Vlad said before turning his attention to both older Fentons, his old college buddies.

"Vladdie!" Jack greeted enthusiastically.

"Jack!" Vlad replied with equal joy in his voice.

Seconds later Vlad was crushed by Jack's bear-hug. One must now that the Fentons have always been a very affectionate and the frequent hugs were a part of it. Luckily Vlad got used to it a while ago. And a little bit of ghost-powers helped as well.

"It's so good to see you V-man! And thank you for making sure the RV was ready at the airport." Jack said after releasing Vlad from his bear-hug death-trap.

"Ah it was the least I could do, even more when you'll be living nearby now." Vlad said.

"Still, thank you Vlad." Maddie interjected.

"Ah…Maddie, still as beautiful as ever. It was my pleasure to help you, the both of you." Vlad said.

"Yes, and it's a very nice house V-man, you made an excellent pick." Jack said.

"I did didn't I?" Vlad said. "And I made some modifications before you moved in. have the kids seen their new rooms already?" he asked.

"Uh, no we haven't." Jazz said.

"What do you mean with modifications Vlad?" Danny asked curiously.

Vlad chuckled. "I mean that I made both your rooms a bit more to your liking I think." He said. "Can I borrow them for a bit?" He asked Maddie and Jack.

"Sure Vlad, go ahead and explore kids." Maddie said.

Both sibling nodded and looked to Vlad who gestured towards the stairs. The three of them wasted no time to climb them and when they were up Vlad took charge.

"Alright kids, let's look at Jasmine's room first. This way please." Vlad said gesturing them to follow him.

Both Jazz and Danny followed him through the hall. He led them to the back of the house, at the end of the hall were two doors. He opened the door on the left first and gestured for them to step in. Jazz's room was simple with a queen sized bed, a large desk and several bookcases spread around her bed.

"I know it isn't much but I hope you like it." Vlad said.

Jazz smiled. "It's everything I ever dreamed of." She said happily and turned to Vlad. "I will certainly manage with this." She said.

"Alright then, let's go see Daniel's new room. Here I made the most modifications." Vlad said while walking out of Jazz's room and towards the black door that was Daniel's room.

They opened the door and were met by a room which was totally in Danny's alley. The room was dark and cosy with a queen sized bed in the corner, complete with black and white tinted sheets. There was also a desk which was slightly smaller than Jazz's, a TV stand complete with a small cabinet for his console and a couple of large cabinets for his clothes. When he looked up he could see his roof was painted like a clear starry sky complete with full moon and accurate constellations accurately painted. Danny was in heaven.

"I take it you like what you're seeing?" Vlad asked.

"It's amazing… thank you." Danny said in awe.

"Now now Daniel, we aren't there yet." Vlad said. "You see the bathroom build alongside your room is slightly different. Go and see if you can find out what."

Danny walked into the bathroom which contained a toilet, shower and sink and didn't see anything different than when he was in Jazz's. but for some reason he felt it was different somehow. He took a good look around and then it hit him. "This bathroom is smaller than Jazz's." he remarked.

Vlad smirked. "Indeed little badger, and for a very good reason. Follow me." He said while walking out of the bathroom and back into Danny's room.

Once they were both back in the room Vlad pointed to the wall in-between Danny's bed, his nightstand and the door to the bathroom. Right next to the door was a large mirror and next to that was a wooden wall that was broken by two beams. One by the mirror and one by the nightstand.

"Do you notice anything about that wall?" Vlad asked.

Danny looked at the wall and back into his bathroom. Then he noticed that the wall separating the two rooms war really thick, like a meter thick as opposed to the normal fifteen centimetres.

"The wall is enormously thick. Is there something behind this wall." Danny asked while putting his hands on the wooden structure.

"Yes indeed Daniel, but you're not supposed to press the wall there." Vlad said while walking towards the mirror. "Put your hand right here." Vlad instructed while pointing to a spot on the side of the mirror.

Danny stepped back and did as he was told. When he put his hand on the mirror surface a faint green line could be seen scanning his hand through the mirror. When his hand was completely scanned the image of his palm lit up green and blinked a few times. Simultaneously several clicking sounds could be heard behind the mirror like a lock opening. Then then the wall to his left clicked backwards and rolled to the side with the sound of muted electrical servos. The wall slid away and out of the opening came an enormous array of storage compartments, charging ports and an armour stand, all still empty.

Danny knew immediately what their purpose was. This was supposed to be his armoury for the Phantom nanosuit and all its gadgets. "A hidden armoury for my suit! And it's right in my room! That's ingenious!" Danny said enthusiastically.

"For you my dear boy, only the best." Vlad said.

"Thanks Vlad." Danny said.

"Think nothing of it. it's necessary to keep your gear hidden. Come on, let's go back down and unpack some more." Vlad said making his way back.

"Right behind you." Danny answered.

Vlad, Danny and Jazz went back down and helped with the unpacking as Vlad caught up with Jack and Maddie. Ranging from the different subjects: from how live was in London or Wisconsin to the state of both their companies to Vlad's ghostly condition and if the ecto-acne had showed up again. Maddie and Jack promised to give him another full check-up once the lab was operational. Jack and Vlad did plan to have a men's night not too far in the future as the Packers would soon play another game, and both men were diehard American Football fans, certainly if it involved the Packers.

After a while Danny got his suit and weapons out of the GAV and dragged the heavy chests up the stairs and into his room. The chests were the same type of silver-green the GAV was made of and they looked like large weapons crates, which they were. Danny opened his hidden wall and the crates and began giving everything a place. He started with placing his guns in their charging sockets as well as the extra energy packs, his fighting staff and ghostly knife. Afterwards he fitted his armour in the designed space and it fit very well. Vlad had it made custom of course. After the armour was in the only things that needed placing were his hover board and last but not least the Fenton-Thermos. He quickly found their designated spots and took a step back to admire his work. After a few moments he pressed the button on the inside and the Armour and gear retracted and the wall closed itself.

When he went down he found his mother cooking dinner together with Jazz while Vlad and Jack were avidly chatting in one of the living room couches. He went up to his mother to see if he needed to help.

"Smell delicious mom, is there anything I have to help with?" Danny asked.

Maddie smiled. "Oh no sweetie, that isn't necessary at all. Though could you go ask Vlad if he'd like to stay for dinner?" she asked.

"Right, I'm on it mom." Danny said.

Danny then stepped out of the kitchen and into the living room where his father and Vlad were. "Hey Vlad? Mom asks if you want to stay for dinner?" he asked.

"But why of course Daniel. Tell her I'd love to stay." Vlad said.

"I'll tell her." Danny said. He then ran back into the kitchen to tell his mom. "Vlad's staying for dinner mom."

"Alright, just needed to know." Maddie said back.

Danny then went back into the living room and sat himself down in one of the couches near his father and Vlad.

"Ah Dann-o, I was just telling Vladdie about your progress in the ghost-hunting business." Jack said.

"I must say Daniel, the stories are quite impressive. You sure learned a lot since the last time." Vlad said.

"Oh well… all part of the job right." Danny said shyly

"Now now Daniel, you can be proud of you achievements. We didn't train you for nothing." Vlad said.

Danny was now reminded of his training sessions with Vlad, he would instruct Danny how to catch ghosts and taught him how to fight. All this was done in his ghost-form, Vlad Plasmius.

"And I guess you want to do another session soon?" Danny asked.

"Only when you're comfortably installed in your new home. No need to rush things." Vlad said.

"Sounds good." Danny said.

"It reminds me though, when are you planning to return to the public?" Vlad asked.

"I was thinking on laying low for a while. Make sure we are all installed into the house and most of the lab is operational. Also I'd like to explore the city as Danny first and later do it as Phantom while cloaked. Also I need to do some research on the city itself." Danny explained.

"Sounds like a plan Dann-o!" Jack encouraged his son.

"Indeed little-badger, for intel I can offer you one thing though. You will not be the only resident ghost-hunter in Amity Park." Vlad said.

"So I'll get company from a colleague? Do I know him or her?" Danny asked.

"I don't think so, she turned up only a few months ago and she's a rookie. Luckily for her only low powered ghosts have turned up in Amity yet and they've been largely successful in avoiding her." Vlad said.

"Right, so inexperienced ghost-hunter I need to look out for. What's her name?" Danny mused.

"I believe she calls herself…the Red Huntress." Vlad said.

Danny added the name to his mental list. "Alright, I'll be on the lookout for her." he said.

Vlad ended up staying a little after dinner and then returned to his mansion in Wisconsin. He and Danny agreed to have a session in about two weeks. Danny meanwhile laid on his bed musing over the things he had learned today, he decided to wait out and see what the future would bring and fell asleep not long after.

 **So, chapter two is done. And some rather well known characters and names were introduced. Before you ask any questions let me explain the timeline a bit more.**

 **Although Danny didn't live in Amity Park yet Valerie and her Dad did have an incident with Cujo or the ghost-dog causing Valerie's dad, Damon to lose his job and house and having Valerie's popularity drop like a stone. She was expelled from the A-listers and had to take up a side job to get by. Out of anger and with a lust for revenge she became the Red Huntress using tech from Axiom Labs and Dalv co. Vlad isn't the manipulative person he is in the original series so he didn't supply Valerie with her gear and thus has no idea of her identity. She will be introduced in person in one of the next chapters.**

 **Anyway so now we have some insight in Danny's new home and his plans for the future. As for the people wondering what Sam and Tucker are up to, we're getting to that.**

 **Reviews:**

 **Kimera20: why thank you. That really means a lot especially after the first chapter already.**

 **Hope you all enjoyed and stay tuned for the next chapter.**


	3. Chapter 3: Exploring Amity

**Chapter 3: Exploring Amity**

 **Fentonworks, Afternoon**

It has been a few days since the Fenton family had arrived in their new home and Danny was well… bored. His parents were busy in the lab setting up all the needed tech for the new ghost-portal and Jazz was working on setting up the encryption for the communications network. So Danny had nothing to do but sit around and wait, he had already unloaded a ton of stuff into the house and almost everything was already in place except the high-tech stuff in the lab and the ops-centre whose materials were still underway. Now he was just lying in the couch doing nothing but stare out of the window into the yard and listen to some of his favourite music.

From his position he could see a small part of Amity-Park through the trees that surrounded the yard, he wondered what the city would look like if he were to walk through it. He also knew that he needed to get to know the city for several reasons. One, he would be finishing high-school here and he would be hunting ghosts here. It was in is interests to at least explore the city a bit.

Danny got up from his position on the couch and made his way down to the lab where his parents and sister were working. When he came down from the stairs into the underground laboratory he first ran into his sister. The lab was still largely unfinished, it was made up out of multiple rooms all in different sizes. Some of the walls were already steel plated while others were still bare and one could see all the wires, circuits and electronic cables running along the wall. The first room was large, the stairs came down on a balcony that looked out over a room that was more of an observatory. There was a large hub of screens and computers placed in a half circle on the left side of the room as seen from the balcony. It looked out onto a circular holographic projector table in the middle of the room which was still offline with a lot of cables prodding out of it for the moment. It still needed some more construction work. Inside the computer hub Danny spotted his sister Jazz working the computers, that spot has always been largely hers even when they still lived in London. It stood to reason she would be devoting her attention there, as she used the hub as a communications centre.

Danny came down from the balcony and walked up to the computer hub where his sister was sitting. Jazz spotted him when he heard his footsteps coming up the metal staircase to her.

"Hey little brother, you need something?" Jazz asked.

"Yeah, do you know where mom and dad are? I kind of want to go explore the city a bit." Danny said.

"Oh, they are in the room over there." Jazz said while pointing at a door on the opposite side of the room where they were. "They are doing some preparations for the ghost-portal."

"Alright thanks." Danny said. "How is progress on communications going?" he asked.

"It's going alright actually." Jazz said while pointing at one of the screens. "I'm now working on the encryption but I linked some of our devices already, including your phone."

"Great, I'll make sure I'll have it on me when I go out." Danny said.

Danny then walked down from the platform and onto the main laboratory floor. To his left there was another window which was currently barred off since that particular room was far from ready. He crossed the main lab and went into the door Jazz had pointed him towards. He stepped inside and found both his parents dressed in their usual blue and orange jumpsuits complete with white lab coats covering them. Jack was currently sporting a welding mask welding some cables in place while Maddie was working on the ecto-filter safety system. They both stopped what they were doing when Danny walked in.

"Hey Danny-boy!" Jack greeted whilst taking his welding glasses off. "Come to help out your old man?"

Danny laughed. "No dad, sorry to disappoint you. I came to say that I'm going to explore the city for a bit. See the neighbourhood." He said.

"Oh but that a great idea Danny!" Maddie said. "You can go see the city and familiarise yourself with it."

"That' the idea mom." Danny replied.

"Now what are you waiting for Dann-o? Go on, go see Amity. Make sure you have your phone with you okay?" Jack said.

"I will, thanks!" Danny said whilst turning around and leaving the lab.

"Bye Jazz, see you later." Danny waved at his sister behind the monitors.

"Enjoy yourself little brother." She called back.

Danny nodded back and then went back up the stairs and out of the lab. He went up the stairs again to quickly grab some stuff. Out of his closet he grabbed a black, zipper-closed hoody to go with his blue jeans and a red shirt with a white circle in the middle. He put his shoes and took some sturdy fingerless gloves and put them on. He needed them if he were to use his skateboard. Danny then picked up a small backpack, grabbed his wallet and his phone. A black design which he made some modifications to himself. Then he went back down and walked into the garage.

And like you would expect with Jack Fenton, the garage was already a bloody mess. There were boxes and tools scattered everywhere. Danny just signed and picked up his skateboard from one of the tables. He walked out again shutting off the lights and closing the door.

Danny walked down the front lawn and looked at the street before him.

"Well, here goes nothing." He said to himself as he rolls his board in front of him and jumps on with the expertise of a professional. He taps the back of his foot on the button at the back of the board for a second to get a little burst of the jet engines he installed on the back. Giving him a slight boost to get up to speed as he rolls through the street.

 **Somewhere on the street of Amity-Park, afternoon**

Two teenagers of about sixteen year were strolling through the streets in the sun of an early summer afternoon. They were an odd pair to say the least. The boy had a dark complexion and was dressed in green cargo pants, a yellow shirt and brown mountain boots. He wore glasses and a red beret with some dark brown hair peeking out under it. He was also almost constantly tapping at the PDA in his hands. The girl next to him was almost opposite in every way. She was…in one word… Goth. She had smooth black hair that reached up to her shoulders, wore a black and purple tank top, a black and green striped skirt, purple leggings and heavy steel toed combat boots. And throw in some purple lipstick and dark eyeshadow as well. Dangerous and beautiful in her own way. Both teens went by the names Tucker and Sam.

Sam signed. "Tuck, are you ever going to put that thing away?" She asked annoyed.

Tucker gasped and pulled his PDA closer to him. "How could you say that?!" Tucker said. "I would never leave you Charon." He said back to his PDA.

Sam shook her head. "Sometimes I really think you have a problem Tuck."

"Says the one that doesn't eat meat." Tucker shot back.

And there it was again, the unending meat versus vegetarian debate. It was one of the things that happened at least once a week. But for all their differences the two were the best of friends, it was them against the rest. Since they weren't very popular in school they had only one another to turn to. And maybe soon a third.

During their argument they kept walking along the road, never seeing what came around the corner.

Danny was absentmindedly cruising the city on his skateboard, taking in the sights. Not really paying attention where he was going as he was more looking around and trying to memorise the layout of the city. It could come in handy when he was back in the Phantom nanosuit. Unfortunately for him he didn't look around the corner.

SMASH!

The three teens collided with a bang and were reduced to a pile of people on the corner of the sidewalk. Each of them groaning in pain from the fall.

"Aw, what the hell dude?" Tucker said.

"Can't you look where you're going?" Sam asked.

Danny groaned. "Aw, bloody hell." He looked up to see two teens in front of him on the ground. His eyes widened and he scrambled upright spouting apologies. "O God, I'm so sorry. I should have looked where I was going. My sincerest apologies." He said while extending his hand and pulling Tucker upright. "Are you alright?" he asked while extending his hand to Sam.

Sam looked at the gloved hand and followed the arm toward a black haired guy standing over her. She took the offered hand and the guy pulled her upright.

"Are you alright?" Danny asked again.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Sam said.

"Hold on!" Tucker suddenly said. "Where's Charon?!"

Danny began looking around. "Charon? Did I hit another person?" he asked.

Sam laughed. "No, ignore him. Charon is what he calls his PDA." She explained.

"How could you say that?!" Tucker said while looking for his PDA.

"It's fine, don't worry." Sam said to Danny. "Say… are you new around here? I've never seen you here before." Sam asked.

Danny brought a hand to the back of his neck. "Yeah, we moved here about a week ago. This is actually the first time I went into the city." He said nervously. "You're not mad that I hit you both?"

Sam looked over herself checking for any wounds. "Nah, we're fine. I mean if Tucker can get over the emotional shock of losing his beloved PDA." She joked.

"You're just lucky she's okay." Tucker shot back.

"Ugh, stop whining Tuck. You can always buy the newest model." Sam said to Tucker. "Sorry about him." She said to Danny.

"Oh, it's no problem really. I'll just find my board and I'll be on my merry way." Danny said.

"Your board?" Sam asked. "You mean that thing over there?" she asked whilst pointing to the skateboard near Tucker.

Tucker looked at what Sam was pointing at and picked up Danny's skateboard. He began fervently examining the design. "Dude! This is amazing! A skateboard with a battery powered jet-thruster! How did you get this?" Tucker asked amazed.

Danny extended his hand motioning Tucker to be careful. "Easy, the booster is really sensitive. And I didn't actually get it. It's just something I build while I was tinkering." He explained.

Tucker looked at him with wide eyes. "You build this?!" he asked not really believing it.

"I in fact did." Danny said while crossing his arms.

Tucker then proceeded to completely geek out over the board, looking at it from every side. Sam came standing next to Danny and chuckled at Tucker's antics and Danny's face.

"Oh don't worry, this is completely normal. You'll get your board back." Sam said.

"I hope so. Say we haven't been properly introduced yet. Is it forwarding to ask your name?" Danny asked.

"No it's not. I'm Sam and that geek who is freaking out over a skateboard over there is Tucker." Sam said while pointing to herself and Tucker respectively.

"I'm Daniel, but most people call me Danny. Say, Sam? Is that short for something?" Danny asked.

"It's short for Samantha, and here's your board back dude." Tucker said.

Sam gave Tucker a kick to the chins with her steel-toed boots. "Never call me that Tuck!" She seethed.

"Aw! Aw aw aw aw!" Tucker cried out.

"I guess someone doesn't like her name." Danny said.

"I just prefer Sam." She said.

"Noted." Danny replied while putting his board in his backpack.

"So Danny, where do you come from? I mean before you moved?" Sam asked.

"Come on Sam, that's obvious! He is either from Great-Britain or British territories." Tucker said.

"Tucker! You can't just make such assumptions. And not all the British territories have English as a native language you know." Sam scolded.

"No, it's quite all right. It's a common assumption which is correct in my case. I moved here from Great-Britain." Danny said.

"I guessed as much, with the accent." Tucker said.

"It's not that bad is it?" Danny asked.

"No Danny, its fine. You're completely understandable." Sam said.

"Thank you." Danny replied.

"So dude, where are you going in such a hurry?" Tucker asked.

"Well, I'm actually going nowhere Tucker. I'm just going around the city and taking in the sights." Danny explained.

"Seen anything interesting yet?" Sam asked whilst leaning to a nearby wall.

"Actually no, just a bunch of buildings and I think I saw a park nearby." Danny recounted.

"We could show you around dude, we know our way around her pretty well." Tucker said pointing his thumb to himself.

"Oh um, sure I guess if it isn't too much trouble." Danny said.

"No worries dude, we'll show you the best spots in the city." Tucker said.

"And we can get to know each other better. I'm guessing we're the same age so we could end up in the same classes after summer." Sam said.

"Saaam! Don't bring up school! Summer only just started." Tucker whined.

"Relax, we have plenty of summer left. In the meantime let's show our newcomer around. You coming Danny?" Sam asked as she pushed off the wall and started heading down the street again.

"You bet I'm coming." Danny replied.

"Hey guys wait for me." Tucker said as he followed the two others.

So the three teens set off into the city, Sam and Tucker showing Danny all the points of interest. They came by the various buildings they normally frequented. Casper high was one of the first places they came by and Danny recalled he would be going there after the end of summer vacation. When they were there Sam also pointed out Axiom-labs in the distance and explained they were doing all kinds of research, even ghost related. When they asked Danny he just told them he had heard about it but wasn't really worried about ghosts. Afterwards they made their way past the Amity-Park mall, a popular hangout so to say and finally coming to the most popular hangout for their age in the city. The Nasty-Burger.

"Trust me man, you're going to love it." Tucker said as they were about to round the corner.

They went around and in front of them stood the fast-food restaurant known as the Nasty-Burger.

"Tadaa!" Tucker said.

"A fast-food restaurant?" Danny asked with a raised eyebrow.

"They have the best, and I mean the BEST meat-lover menu in the world man!" Tucker said.

"Ugh, you should really consider eating less things with a face on Tuck. Like me." Sam said.

"So, you're a vegetarian?" Danny asked.

"An ultra-recyclo-vegetarian to be precise." Sam proudly said.

"Remind me what that means again?" Tucker asked.

"Like she said, she doesn't eat anything with a face on it." Danny replied.

"Finally! Someone understands." Sam said.

"All due respect for vegetarians, though I wouldn't be able to do it myself constantly. Sometimes I do like a vegetarian dish but not every day." Danny said.

"Bah, man how can you say that? For me, one word. Meat connoisseur, it's given me a keen sense of smell." Tucker said as he smelled at Danny. "You had sausages for dinner last night." He pointed out.

Danny was impressed as Tucker was correct. "Nice." He said.

"Sixteen year all meat streak." Tucker said proudly.

Danny looked at him incredulously. "That can't be healthy can it?"

"I'm still going today dude." Tucker proclaimed.

Danny just nodded.

"Hey, we should totally go in there now." Tucker said.

Danny raised his hand to signal Tucker to slow down. "Woah man, let's leave that for another day shall we." Danny said.

"We could go to the park. Hang out there." Sam suggested.

"On that I can agree." Danny replied.

"Fine, but we should really go there sometime." Tucker said.

"Sounds good." Danny said.

Together the three went away from the Nasty-Burger and into Amity's nature park. There were some other people present as well, though mostly families and younger children. The group walked around for a bit until they found a nice large tree which they sat down next to. Resting in its shadow.

"So Danny? Where did you live? In which city or town I mean." Sam asked.

"I used to live in London, Great-Britain's capitol." Danny said.

"Yeah, we know where London is dude." Tucker said.

"Just checking, there are a lot of Londons actually. I just come from the most well-known." Danny said.

"Did your family live there your entire life?" Sam asked.

"Yes, I was born there. So was my sister, but my parents aren't from Britain originally. They actually used to live right her, in Amity-Park." Danny explained.

"So why did they move in the first place? We could have known each other if they hadn't." Tucker said.

"I suppose that would have been an option, who knows. My parent originally moved there over twenty years ago for work." Danny said.

"Must have been tough. Leaving behind everything you know." Sam said.

"It isn't so bad actually, meeting new people is certainly nice." Danny said with a smile.

"Say, you are from London. That does explain why you said you weren't scared of ghosts. You have them there as well." Tucker said.

"We do, but activity has been on the decline for a long time. There were hardly any attacks anymore." Danny said.

"I think I know why. London is the home of the best ghost-hunter there is." Tucker said.

Danny chuckled mentally. 'If only they knew he was sitting next to them.' He thought.

"Yeah, until he disappeared over a month ago." Sam said.

"He'll be back soon I think. That guy doesn't let anything stop him." Tucker said.

"He seems to be quite popular here as well." Danny said. "I didn't think he would get so much attention on the other side of the ocean."

"He is an anomaly to us. A mystery, and it helps that there are ghosts in Amity as well so some of us keep informed on the subject." Sam said.

"And if you have ghosts here as well. Do you also have ghost-hunters?" Danny asked secretly hoping to get some more info in the Red Huntress.

"We have the ones that come and go. Like the Extreme Ghostbreakers or the Groovy Gang and Scaredy Cat. But we recently gained a permanent ghost hunter, or huntress rather." Sam said.

"The Red Huntress as we call her. She's kinda cool though." Tucker continued.

"She tries." Sam said.

"Tries?" Danny asked.

"She doesn't have a lot of experience. And she hasn't caught any or at least very few ghosts." Sam explained. "She'll improve over time I guess."

Danny mused over this. It seemed the Huntress had some trouble adapting to the job. Maybe next time he went out he could keep an eye on her from the shadows and make his own judgement.

"Let's hope so. Otherwise we're screwed if a very powerful ghost attacks us." Tucker said.

"Hmm." Danny hummed.

At that moment Danny felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and the message tone played.

"Uh, that's not mine." Tucker said.

"No it's mine." Danny said as he fished his smartphone out of his pocket.

"Dude, that thing looks sick." Tucker complimented.

"Thank you." Danny said as he unlocked his phone and looked at the message. It was from Jazz asking him to come home.

"Hmm, looks like they need me back home." Dany said. "Looks like I've got to say goodbye for now." He said while looking at Sam and Tucker.

"Hey, no worries dude. We'll see you another time." Tucker said.

"Wait!" Sam suddenly said stopping Danny from getting up. "We should exchange numbers. To keep in contact you know."

"That's not such a bad idea." Danny said as he unlocked his phone again. "Give me your number and I'll text you guys later."

Sam then dictated her number for Danny. "It's Sam Manson by the way." She said.

"And I'm Tucker Foley or TF which stands for too fine." Tucker said causing Danny to laugh.

"Alright, if you think so." Danny chuckled.

"I just realised. We don't know you last name?" Sam said.

"Alright, if you must know my last name is Fenton." Danny said.

Both Tucker and Sam made wide eyes. "Wait, Fenton as in Fentonworks?" Tucker asked.

Danny shook his head, this was something he wasn't going to tell them right away. He wanted to keep it a secret a while longer and see if they were real friends. "No, I'm not related to those Fentons. Thrust me I get that question a lot." He said.

Sam shrugged. "Who cares who you're related to? The name just made us think about the company." She said.

Danny smiled.

"Alright sir Fenton." Tucker said jabbing at his British heritage. "See you later."

Danny waved at his two new friend. "Later guys." He said before pulling his skateboard out of his backpack and making his way out of the park and towards home.

"He seems to be a nice guy." Tucker said.

"Yes, let's hope he doesn't turn out to be a douche when he comes into contact with the A-list." Sam said.

Tucker nodded at this, hoping he wouldn't drop them for high-school popularity.

 **Fentonworks, Evening**

After Danny came home he helped his parents and sister in the lab preparing more of the systems and getting the holo-table online. He messaged Tucker and Sam during this time and briefly told his parents of his encounter today. They were very supportive of Danny making new friends. After dinner Danny and Jazz went up their respective room. Danny taking the time to clean out some of his weapons and check if they were still functional.

Now he sat on his bed with his pistol in hand while the levers were cocked back and he could see the insides. He used a small cleaning rag to clean off some residuals from the energy discharge when the weapon fired when suddenly his phone beeped again.

He put down the rag and grabbed his phone from the nightstand and unlocked the screen. Right there was a message from Sam.

 _Hey Danny, sorry to disturb you but Tucker and me are having a chat session and we were wondering if you wanted to join us._

Underneath the text was the address where the chat was taking place and a not that they were using webcams. Danny thought for a moment and then decided he would take up on that offer. He stashed the rag away, clicked the gun back in its normal position and put it its designated place before placing his hand on the mirror and closing the wall. Hiding his suit from the outside world.

He then started up his PC and grabbed his headset. About ten minutes later he had started up and found the chatroom. Though it was password protected he had been given the right information and was in in no time.

"Hey guys." Danny greeted as his image appeared on the screen

"Danny! You came." Sam said.

"Well, you gave me an invitation and it would be ungentlemanly not to respond." Danny said with a smirk.

"I told you Sam. Total British stereotype." Tucker said.

"Hey, is that an insult Foley?" Danny asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I shall not be silenced from the truth!" Tucker proclaimed.

"Well, I'll inform her Majesty that the colonies needs some education on manners." Danny said while exaggerating his accent.

All three of them laughed hard at this, even Danny.

When they finally calmed down Sam spoke. "Alright, what are we going to do?" she asked.

"I don't know Sam, make a suggestion." Danny said.

The three spend the remainder of the evening chatting and occasionally playing a game which for some reason Sam beat them horribly at every time. Much to the frustration of Tucker. Danny however enjoyed every second of it. For the first in long time he felt like he had friends.

 **And that wraps up the introduction of Sam and Tucker. Hope it was done alright, they will play major roles in the story, Duh. But that's all the info you're getting out of me today.**

 **As many will have realised I'm giving my own spin on the story and the ghost lab as well. It has been made that large for a good reason. A lot of things will be going on in there. More of that later in the story. Also, if any people from Great-Britain or other mentioned countries read this please don't take the stereotypes too seriously. In return you may make jokes about Belgians, go on I can take it. (Jokes only though)**

 **Reviews:**

 **Kimera20: well, you got your answer for Tucker and Sam. For Valerie you'll just have to wait a little longer.**

 **Hope you all enjoyed and till next time**


	4. Chapter 4: Nasty-burger hangout

**Chapter 4: Hanging out at the Nasty Burger**

 **Fentonworks laboratory, around noon**

The sound of metal clashing was heard in the basement of the Fenton household, and not just any metal. Down in the main room of the lab were two humans, correction one human and a halfa doing a rather intense sparring session. Vlad was currently flying around in his ghost form while Danny was running around with his electro-staff trying to land a hit on Vlad while dodging the various low power ecto-blasts. Jack, Maddie and Jazz were watching on the side while Danny tried to gain ground on Vlad, which wasn't simple since he was dressed in metal combat boots, tight fitting training pants and a tight fitting T-shirt he used when doing sparring sessions. He didn't have any other gear on whatsoever, so no jump-pack, no hover-board and no enhanced abilities due to the nanosuit.

"Come on little-badger, you can do it." Vlad encouraged as he shot another low-powered ecto-blast.

Danny huffed. "It's kinda difficult without being able to fly. I should have brought a flyswatter." He joked.

"Your suit won't be working always Daniel. Think your way around it." Vlad advised.

Danny dodged another beam and looked around. The lab had become more and more defined over the past few days after he went into town for the first time. He ducked behind the holo-table to dodge yet another blast which hit the table top. Danny peeked over the edge and formulated a plan to get Vlad down or get himself up. Then he had a revelation.

His staff was mostly made as a hand to hand weapon, but that didn't mean he couldn't use it as a spear. In one swift movement Danny jumped on the table, raised his arm and threw the staff at Vlad's chest like a javelin. Vlad was startled but flew out of the way of the projectile before he was hit. Unfortunately for him he flew down to avoid it, bringing him right in Danny's path. Danny kept up his speed and jumped in the air, slamming both his feet in Vlad's stomach making him lose focus causing them to both crash in the ground.

Danny quickly rolled off Vlad and went for his staff. Vlad got up equally fast using a bit of his ghost flight. He turned around to blast Danny. The latter saw this coming however and sidestepped/ducked out of the way and prodded his weapon in Vlad's chest giving him a light yet harmless shock and froze in position.

"Got you Vlad." Danny said slightly smug.

"Indeed little badger." Vlad said as he let the ghostly rings wash over him transforming back into his human form. "Excellent thinking for using your staff as a javelin." He commented.

"Thanks." Danny said back.

"Well done son!" Jack called when he, Maddie and Jazz came closer.

"Here you go boys." Maddie said as she gave both men a towel to dry off the accumulated sweat.

"Thank you Maddie. Your brother keeps improving every time it seems." Vlad said.

Danny made some noises under his towel as to diminish his advancement.

"Now now Daniel, you don't need to be so modest. You did well." Vlad said as he laid a hand on Danny's shoulder.

"Thanks." Danny said.

"I think you're ready to go on the streets tonight Daniel. Even if you don't do anything it'll be good for you to get to know the city from above. Since I heard you already explored the ground." Vlad said.

"So you heard?" Danny said absent minded.

Vlad laughed. "Maddie told me about it when I asked what you've been up to. I also heard you made some friends."

"Yeah, I did. They're really nice guys." Danny said.

"Glad to hear it Daniel." Vlad said.

"Yeah, they're pretty nice. We actually agreed to meet up in about an hour." Danny said while looking at a nearby clock.

"Well then get going my boy. Better take a quick shower, no-one likes their friends to show up all sweaty." Vlad chuckled.

"Heh, you don't say Vlad?" Danny chuckled. "Yeah, I'll go take a quick shower. See you around Vlad." He said as he mounted the stairs and went upstairs.

Vlad hummed. "Let's hope he found someone he can trust." He said.

"We hope so too Vladdie, now. Ready for that scan we promised you?" Jack asked.

"Certainly, where do I go?" Vlad asked as he turned around several times trying to find the medical section in a giant, new-build lab that had already turned confusing.

Jack laughed. "Right this way V-man!" he said as he held out his arm showing the way to the side of the room where a secluded alcove of medical equipment was build. "Jazzypants? Would you come and help us out?"

"On my way." Jazz answered.

"Vlad?! Would you like some tea?" Maddie shouted as she went upstairs to grab something.

Vlad chuckled as he laid down on the soft hospital bed placed near the ectoplasmic scanners. "My my, living in London really made you two embrace British habits didn't it." he said.

"I guess it did, and no-one has complained yet! So?! The usual?!" Maddie shouted back.

"Yes Maddie, the usual will be just fine thank you!" Vlad answered.

Meanwhile Danny took a quick shower in his room and switched his training suit for something more comfortable. Some blue jeans, a white shirt with a red circle and a grey hoody inside his backpack should do fine. He grabbed the rest of his stuff and the fingerless gloves he wore when skating and set out.

But not before making a small detour to the basement. Once he arrived there he found Vlad sitting on the hospital bed casually sipping his tea while Maddie, Jack and Jazz were all going over the data with him. He managed to pick up that the ecto-acne condition was safely in its supressed state and Vlad was physically healthy.

"Hey mom dad? I'm going to hang out with my new friends okay?!" Danny said from the balcony overlooking the lab.

Maddie looked at him for a moment and smiled. "Sure thing honey, be back home in time for dinner okay?" she said.

"Will do!" Danny answered before going back up the stairs and making his way through the front door whilst picking up his skateboard.

Once he was off the front he rolled his board out in front of him and leisurely jumped on. Giving a small boost to travel at a for him meagre but still adequate pace. He, Tucker and Sam had agreed to hang out today. Meeting at the Nasty Burger to start and wing it from there on. Not that Danny really minded, getting to hang out with some people he actually started to really like was enough for him.

He arrived at the Nasty Burger about twenty minutes later and he saw that Tucker and Sam where already there waiting at the edge of the parking lot. Crossing the street on his board he hit the brake just before he was about to hit the curb, kicked his board up, grabbed it and leisurely walked up to his new friends.

"Hey Danny." Tucker greeted by bumping fists with Danny. "Nice entry." He joked.

"As opposed to hitting the curb and mopping it with my face you mean?" Danny joked back.

"Hmm, might give the sidewalk a more unique feel to it." Sam chuckled.

"Yeah, 'one big Danny shaped blood splatter on the ground please'!" Danny said exaggerating.

Sam and Tucker laughed. "Let's not do that man. I'd hate to see you break your face on concrete." Tucker said.

"Agreed, so are we going inside? Or are we going to stand here all day?" Danny asked.

"Right away dude, you're going to love this place." Tucker said as the trio made their way to the front door. "Oh, and you got to try their nasty sauce. It's explosively hot!"

"Explosive as in just really spicy sauce or explosive as in 'boom the building is gone' explosive?" Danny asked a little wary.

"Both actually, it's really hot and if heated to a certain temperature it becomes explosive." Sam said. "Happened once when this guy was smoking outside and had one of the packets in his pockets. Thought it was a good idea to set it on fire."

"And then what happened?" Danny asked as they walked through the door into the restaurant.

"The guy was blown through the window. Received some nasty burns afterwards. Happened a few years ago, most have already forgotten." Sam said.

"Okay… I think I'll stay away from any possible explosives for now." Danny said as they went to the counter.

"Ugh, I wish they'd give more options for vegans though. Everything here is soaked in dead animals!" Sam said.

"Uh, this is a fast food joint Sam. There supposed to have meat." Tucker pointed out.

"Well maybe they should add some variation. Like you should with your diet." Sam shot back.

"Whoa, guys take it easy." Danny said stepping in between the two. "There no need to fight over this right? I mean everyone can choose for himself right Sam? I thought you were all about individuality?"

"Yes, but he insists on slaughtering innocent creatures who have done nothing wrong." Sam countered.

"That is true. But you can't stop them Sam, it is just how it is. All you can do is hang on to your own beliefs without enforcing them on others okay?" Danny said.

Sam's gaze faltered, he was right. "Yeah, right sorry. I shouldn't have done that." She said.

"Don't be so upset. I still think veganism or at least being vegetarian is a noble cause that could do wonders to our planet." Danny said. "Now smile!"

"Dude…" Tucker said.

"What?" Danny asked clueless.

"You're basically the first one to stop Sam in her veganism argument like that. No-one ever managed that." Tucker said.

"Oh well, I guess there is a first for everything." Danny laughed. "Now, what shall I get…?" He said as he looked up towards the board above the counters depicting all the food.

"Next!" The employee behind the counter said before she saw the group in front of her. "Oh, Sam…Tucker." She said with a cool voice.

"Valerie..." Both Tucker and Sam greeted with equally cold expressions.

"So? Same meat lover's menu and veggie salad?" Valerie asked with a big frown.

"And something for him." Sam said as she pointed behind her to Danny who was still going over the menu.

"Hey guys I'm having a hard time deciding here. Any suggestions…?" Danny asked as he looked to his two friends and saw their cold looks towards an equally cold Valerie. "Uh, did I miss something?" he asked.

"No, we just share some history with Valerie here." Sam said.

"Okay…" Danny said.

"And who are you?" Valerie asked. "I've never seen you around in Amity."

"Uh, I'm Danny. I just moved here." Danny said. "Say, I'm not all too familiar with the food here, any recommendations?" he asked.

"Oh uh, I'd say the normal menu is quite good. It's a bit of an in-between for the meat lovers menu and the veggie salad." Valerie said.

"That would be fine." Danny said.

"Coming up." Valerie said as she turned around to relay the order to the kitchen.

"You sure you don't want tea with that dude?" Tucker joked earning a kick from Sam.

"Tucker, stereotypes!" She seethed. "Not cool."

"They serve that here?!" Danny asked incredulously and totally oblivious to Sam's reaction.

"Uh, no idea actually." Sam said.

Danny then turned around to Valerie. "Hey, you don't serve tea by any chance right?" he asked.

"Uh, no. This is a fast-food restaurant, not a teashop." Valerie said.

"Alright, just making sure." Danny said.

"Say, what's your name?" Valerie asked. "You seem to be our age?"

"That would be correct. I am planning to be attending Casper High next school year, so it would be possible we share some classes. And I'm Danny by the way." Danny said.

"Well nice to meet you Danny. And here are your orders." Valerie said as she put three trays on the counter.

The three payed for their meals and Sam and Tucker went to find a table. "Thank you, enjoy your meal. Oh, I'm Valerie by the way." Valerie said.

"Thanks. See you around Valerie." Danny said before turning and heading for his friends. Though he did miss the small smile on Valerie's face when he left.

Danny sat down next to Sam who sat across from Tucker at a small table in the corner of the restaurant and began to eat. "Hmm, this is quite good actually." He commented.

Both other teens nodded and continued their meals. All while Tucker's plate got some occasional, scornful glares from Sam. It wasn't after a few minutes of silence until Danny decided to drop the bomb.

"What's up between you two and Valerie anyway?" Danny asked.

"She hasn't been awfully nice to us in the past." Tucker said.

"That's it?" Danny asked confused.

"No, it runs deeper than that." Sam said. "Valerie used to be a part of the popular crowd of Casper High. Her dad was rich and that gave her fame. She was really selfish and mean like her friends back then. Even participating in bullying us and other people they saw as lower than them." She explained.

"Hmm, social groups." Danny muttered. "Okay, I see your point but you said 'used'. What happened?" He asked.

"I don't know for sure. It had something to do with her dad being temporarily fired from Axiom Labs due to some incident with a ghost. Her dad was later re-hired as a security-guard but they lost most of their wealth and she lost her fame." Sam explained.

"Her popularity plummeted after that and she has little friends since then." Tucker continued.

"But her past actions and personality remain. She still isn't exactly nice to us." Sam summarised.

"Alright, I can see where the disdain comes from. But she does look lonely though." Danny said. "Maybe al she needs is better friends?" He mused.

"Perhaps, but it takes two lands to build a bridge." Sam said.

"Agreed." Danny said.

"Hey, we should go hang out at the mall next guys." Tucker suggested.

"Sounds good to me." Danny said.

"Yeah, alright Sam said. We can go see if they have anything new at Skulk and Lurk." Sam said.

"I presume that is some kind of shop there?" Danny asked.

"Yeah dude, it's all dark and witchy stuff." Tucker commented.

"It is not! Don't worry, you'll love it!" Sam said.

"I guess I can check it out. How bad can it be?" Danny asked.

 **Amity Park Mall, Skulk and Lurk, afternoon**

"Okay, I take it back." Danny said. "This shop is kinda weird."

"It's a goth bookstore dude. What do you expect?" Tucker said.

"True, but I do think this store has something unique." Danny said as he walked around in the store looking at the various books on the shelves.

Sam was meanwhile looking around for any new titles but didn't seem to find any.

"Goth's Guide to Mythology? What kind of book is that?" Danny asked as he held a rather large blue book in his hands.

"What?! It's back?!" Sam said surprised.

"Yeah, I have one here. Seems to be the last copy. You want it?" Danny asked.

"Hell yes! I've been looking for that one." Sam said as she took the book from Danny. "It's a more up to date version from the last one six years ago."

"Oh well then buy it." Danny said. "Is there a difference between that book and a normal mythology book?" he asked.

"It's aimed to goths." Sam said cheekily.

"Well no shit Sherlock." Danny said with a matching face.

"Well, let me pay for this and then we can go somewhere else." Sam said.

"Okay." Danny said whilst looking though the books for a last time. Then suddenly his eye fell on a book title that send shivers down his spine. 'Chronicles of the Fright Night' he shivered at the thought of the ghost that he once faced. 'Let's hope I don't have to see him any time soon.' Danny thought.

"Come on guys, let's go somewhere else now." Sam said, making Danny come out of his trance. Luckily for him neither Sam nor Tucker noticed his little stare.

The trio hung out around the mall for the remainder of the afternoon, talking about anything under the sun and swapping stories. Mostly about what it is like in Great-Britain for Danny and some weird or funny stories for Amity Park. They said goodbye again when Danny had to leave to go home for dinner. Tucker had tried to convince him for a late night gaming session but Danny shipped him off telling him he had work to do tonight.

 **Fenton household, evening**

After dinner Danny retreated into his room for a few hours until he had checked all his gear and was ready to set out. He sat on his bed with his pistol in hand making the final checks on the firing mechanism. The secret compartment containing his armour was already opened and sitting there until he decided to gear up.

"Well, as good a time as any." He said whilst clicking his gun back into position.

He stood up from his bed and walked up to the armour on the stand. He then proceeded to pull on the various parts and linking them together, starting with the boots and working up until he had the entire suit on excluding the trench-coat and the helmet. The latter laying on his bed. He then took the coat and hooked it to his shoulders and the side of his chest. His armour did the rest and linked the rest of his back, making the coat one continuous part of the suit. Though the armour was very complicated Danny didn't take more than a few minutes in putting it on, after all of his weapons were strapped in their respective places he grabbed his helmed and shoved it on his head.

'Initialising systems…stand by' was displayed on the HUD.

Danny could feel his helmet being mechanically linked to the rest of the suit, every joint was sealed tight and the nanotech initialised, rendering parts of him invisible for a split second.

'System boot complete…nanosuit operational' then displayed on the HUD.

Danny then walked out of his room and went downstairs. He found his sister sitting on the couch toying with her phone. She looked up when she heard the sound of metal boots hitting the floor.

"Back in gear again?" Jazz asked.

"No sis, I'm going to a Halloween party." Danny said sarcastically, his voice blurred by the mask and the voice synthesiser.

"Well, I think you look the part then. A nice modern rendition of death." Jazz joked back.

Danny laughed. "Thanks, I worked a long time on the costume." He said.

"Correction, we worked a long time on it. We still do." Jazz said.

"Indeed, I do look forward to the upgrade for the staff." Danny said. "Anyway, I'm going out scouting for a while. Not planning on any action for now, got to lay low for now." He said.

"Okay, have fun, be careful and don't forget to contact us when you get into trouble." Jazz said as she patted her ear.

"You say that like I always get into trouble!" Danny said as he walked to the back door waving his arms around to emphasise his point.

"That's because it's a fact Danny, you attract trouble like a magnet." Jazz said.

"Thanks for the support Jazz!" Danny said sarcastically. "See you later!" he called before exiting the house into the back yard.

Danny looked up to the sky to see it was reasonably dark. Not as dark as you would expect in winter, there was still a significant of orange glow on the horizon but the city itself was shadowy enough for him to move around undetected.

He grabbed his compacted hover board from his back and activated it, making it extend to its full size and letting it hover about half a meter above the ground. Danny stepped onto the board and it responded accordingly, increasing the thrust provided by the board's vertical turbines. He then pressed a few buttons on the touchpad on his wrist to activate the cloaking engine. Within moments it appeared as if he and the board he stood on vanished in thin air, whilst actually the nanotech that made up his entire suit had reconfigured into a transparent shell. Projecting what was behind him in front and what was in front of him behind. Basically a very expensive and efficient active camouflage.

Intuitively Danny leaned forward and bend his knees, the board shot forward and gained altitude invisibly making a beeline for the city.

There were still a reasonable amount of people out at the time Danny arrived. Though were none the wiser of his presence. He landed on one of the flat-roofed buildings, deactivating, compacting and putting his hover board on his back again. He was still cloaked and thus gazed over the edge of the building onto the streets below. The inhabitants of Amity Park were leisurely strolling through the streets or having an evening drink at one of the café's or taverns.

Danny looked back in front of him and began running. Parkour was one of the skills he had developed over the past. He jumped from rooftop to rooftop, grabbing onto ledges and doing the occasional wall-run with the help of the jump-kit on his back. He was only using it sparsely right now, he needed to keep a low profile and well… two rocket-thrusters firing wasn't exactly stealthy. This was the only drawback the Fentons haven't been able to fix.

He familiarised himself with the pathways on the rooftops of the city for a good hour before he got eye on his secondary objective. Above him he could see the wispy green shape of a ghost speeding through the evening sky. And behind it followed a person on a silvery jet-sled, seemingly chasing the ghost down while trying to shoot it as the same time. Though the ghost swerved and dodged the shots all while flying along and sometime through buildings at high speed to lose the hunter tailing him.

"STAY STILL YOU WRETCHED PIECE OF ECTOPLASM!" The hunter screamed after the small ghost.

'I believe that must be the Red-Huntress.' Danny thought. 'Serious anger issues it seems.'

He decided to follow them at a distance, keeping the noise down as low as he could. Silently making his way over the rooftops. After a good ten minutes of chasing and witnessing the shots of the Red-Huntress go wide he arrived on top of and empty parking garage looking out over an equally abandoned parking lot. The ghost had vanished and escaped a few minutes back and the Huntress was now on the ground, fuming at her failure.

"GRRAAAH!" She screamed as she stomped her boot on the ground. "Why can't I never get one of them?! Every time they just vanish in thin air!" She screamed.

Danny winced at the volume. He felt a bit bad for her, maybe she had good intentions.

"I swear, the next ghost I get my hands on I will rip to shreds. And then I'll find that wretched ghost dog that ruined my life." She growled.

'Alright, scratch that. She seems to be after revenge for some reason.' Danny thought. 'She does show potential though. Maybe… if I can find out the cause of her rage.'

The Huntress meanwhile was still stomping back and forth muttering to herself. But suddenly she stopped, having this weird feeling she was being watched by someone… or something.

She looked around with her scanners but detected nothing. "Hello? Anybody there?" She shouted.

Danny looked on his own sensors to see of someone else was around. 'No-one is around. She might have noticed I'm here. I know enough for now, I'll come back and deal with her later.' Danny thought before he turned around and left the site silently. Never having dropped his cloak the entire evening. When he was far enough away he activated his hover board and shot back home.

The Red-Huntress was left alone in the parking lot, not sure if something was watching her or she was just being paranoid. She left for home a few minutes later as well. There was always another day to hunt ghosts, she knew she would get them eventually.

Later that night both lay awake in their beds thinking. Valerie was thinking about that really nice Brit she met today and that maybe he could be an unbiased friend. The brit in question was lying awake a well, though for a different reason entirely. Now that he had seen the Red-Huntress for the first time he was wondering what to do with her, and how he should introduce himself when the time comes.

 **And so ends the chapter with Valerie's introduction. I am planning a lot of character growth for her in future chapter though, the main problem right now is building a meaningful world and lore. Also some more interaction between Sam, Tucker and Danny and perhaps some foreshadowing. Who knows…?**

 **As for right now Valerie still has major anger issues and is still on rather hostile ground with Sam and Tucker. Danny forms a bit of a neutral party right now and will likely serve as a bridge between the two groups. But that's for one of the next chapters.**

 **Reviews:**

 **Kimera20: I believe she would be more or less awed by his presence, especially since she is very inexperienced compared to him. But that's just my opinion. I hope you enjoyed Valerie's introduction. It's actually very nice to have at least one reviewer, otherwise it would be kind of lonely. Thank you!**

 **Hope you all enjoyed and till next time.**


	5. Chapter 5: Boxing the Huntress

**Okay, I know it has been a really long time and I'm sorry. I have a lot of work on my hands.**

 **Chapter 5: Boxing the Huntress**

 **Fentonworks laboratory, late morning**

The laboratory under the Fenton household was in a mad hustle. All members of the family were running around, doing their final checks of the newly completed portal room. Everything had to be in peak condition, since today was the day they would activate their new portal.

Maddie and Jack were doing their last checks on the cabling and the ecto-filter system while Danny and Jazz were going over the programming for a last time. All of them were dressed into their respective lab-coats except for Danny who was in his hunting armour to make sure nothing dangerous came out of the portal upon activation.

"Alright kiddo's, ready for the new Fenton Portal?!" Jack bellowed as he closed the cabling compartment he was inspecting.

"As long as the ting doesn't explode." Danny said as he closed his helmet over his face, turning on the green lights of the eyes and morphing his voice. "You have to take into account that this one is a lot bigger than the last one." He said while pointing at the massive hole in the wall.

And he was right, this portal was a vast improvement over the last design. For one it was bigger, way bigger. The Fentons had designed it so they could fit larger objects into the portal to explore the ghost zone. Whereas the last model could fit a handful of people walking next to each other through it, this model was wide and tall enough to fir a small aircraft. Or one of the various vehicles or probes build by the Fentons. One of the latter was now standing ready to launch inside and map the immediate surroundings of the portal.

"You're right sweetie, there's a lot more room for error. But we accounted for that." Maddie said.

"I know we did." Danny said. "Just making sure."

"Don't worry Dann-o! We checked everything twice, and so did you and Jazz! We'll be completely safe!" Jack said loudly.

"Alright then. Jazz, is the probe ready?" Danny asked.

"Ready and set." Jazz answered. "Once the portal is open we launch it in."

"Good." Danny said. "Are we all set dad?" He asked.

"Yes, the whole thing is plugged in and ready! Only need to press the button now!" Jack boomed.

Danny chuckled at his dad's enthusiasm. "Yes dad, but let's do that from the safety of the control console." He said while pointing at Jazz and the portal controls.

"Yes…, good idea Dann-o." Jack said.

"As always…" Danny chuckled absent minded.

"Ego alert." Jazz called to Danny.

"Sure, whatever." Danny said as he grabbed his plasma rifle from his back and powered it up. Ready to shoot anything harmful that might come out of the portal once it activated.

"Commencing primary ignition." Jazz said as she pushed several buttons on the control console.

The portal hole began emitting a low whining sound and illuminated slightly in a neon-green light. On the console Jazz saw a percentage indicating how much the portal ignition was charged. Currently at 55 percent and rising rapidly.

"Note that upon activation the surrounding area will receive a short spike in ecto-activity as a result of a permanent portal opening." Maddie noted.

"It will only be for a moment. Most people won't even notice, I think only Axiom Labs has the stuff to detect it. And even then they are very likely to miss it, like the others did last time." Danny said never taking his gaze and aim away from the empty hole in the wall.

"Portal primed. Dad?" Jazz asked.

"BANZAI!" Jack shouted as he pressed the big button to fully activate the portal.

The portal sparked, gave a high whine and then exploded in a bright green flash which caused everybody except Danny to avert their eyes from the bright light. Danny was luckily protected by his mask. When they looked back they saw a bright and swirling mass inside the portal signalling they were successful and a permanent bridge to the Ghost-zone was opened.

"Jazz, launch the probe." Danny said without taking his eyes off the portal.

"On it." Jazz said as she typed something on the control console and the probe burst to life. Giving a mechanical whir before the magnetic rail it rested on shot it into the swirling mass where it disappeared for the eyes of the Fentons. But not for the scanners.

The view the probe was having was weird and surreal to put it lightly, the Ghost-zone was a swirling mass of neon green ectoplasm, surreal images of purple floating doors and islands and more. Plus the occasional ectoplasmic octopus or ectopus that floated by. The probe itself looked a bit like a small space satellite with a lot of cameras, a communications antenna and a rocket booster for propulsion. It floated for a moment before blasting off into the zone.

"The probe will begin mapping the zone surrounding the portal. We should have an adequate map by tomorrow." Jazz said.

"And the probe will keep working until some random ghost takes it out. I'm betting on Walker by the way." Danny said.

"You're on little brother." Jazz replied.

"Now would someone kindly close the portal?" Danny asked.

"On it." Jazz said as she pressed the button to lock the portal, watching the big black and yellow doors slide closed.

When the doors were closed Danny finally lowered his weapon and turned around. "Okay, portal active and no ghosts interrupting us? Seems like a pretty good day to me." Danny said getting a few chuckles from the rest of the family.

"Now, if all is set and done. I'm going into town, Sam Tucker and I agreed to meet up." He said.

 **Amity Park, just after noon**

A couple hours later Danny was leisurely sitting in the shadow of a tree. It was about halfway July and the sun was shining relentlessly. Being only dressed in a shirt made the heat a little more bearable. Having closed his eyes for a moment because he knew he was early.

After a few minutes Danny noticed his eyelids appeared a little darker, which would mean something or someone was blocking light from falling in on his face. He opened one eye to see what was causing the shadow and was rather surprised not to see his two friend standing in front of him but the single form of the girl he met at the Nasty-Burger, what was her name again? Valerie, that was it.

"Good afternoon Valerie." Danny said whilst not having moved an inch and still having only one eye open.

"Whu…? Oh, hi Danny." Valerie responded. "I see you're enjoying the weather today."

"Meh, just killing some time waiting for Sam and Tucker." Danny said whilst opening both eyes. "What about you?" he asked.

"Oh well, just having as much fresh air before my shift at the Nasty-Burger." Valerie said.

Danny just nodded, deciding not to delve into her backstory yet.

Danny and Valerie talked a little more whilst Danny was waiting, slowly paving the way for a friendship to arise. Meanwhile Sam and Tucker had arrived at the entrance of the park and made their way to the tree were Danny wold be waiting for them, as he let Sam know where he was by text.

"I think I see Danny over there." Tucker said as he pointed to the figure under the tree.

Sam squinted her eyes. "Yep, that's him. But who's that with him?"

"Uh, I think that's Valerie." Tucker said.

"What?" Sam said as she took a closer look. "You're right, what does she think she's doing?!"

"Uh, talking to him I guess." Tucker said.

"Come on, let's get over there…" Sam said before taking off without waiting. Tucker followed quickly behind her.

"So you're from Great-Britain right? I've always wondered what it's like there." Valerie asked.

"I frankly don't understand why people find it so bloody interesting I'm from Britain, it's not like it's another planet." Danny joked. "It's not that special really. Just all humans and buildings with the occasional ghost buzzing around. Only real difference I've noticed so far is that you guys drive on the wrong side of the road." He said.

"Okay, first of all it is you British types that drive weird. And second, I was just being curious. Great-Britain is on the other side of the ocean and I've certainly never been there." Valerie said.

"I was just joking about the first part Valerie, its fine." Danny said.

"Okay, but did you say ghosts?" Valerie asked but before Danny could answer her Sam came into view and called out to him.

"Hey Danny!" Sam called out enthusiastically. "Valerie." She said coldly, acknowledging the girls presence but nothing more.

"Hey Sam." Danny said as he propelled himself upwards. "Tucker." He said after noticing his dark skinned friend behind Sam.

Tucker nodded back in greeting but did notice the crunched eyebrows Valerie was making to them. Though that might have been due to Sam who was subtly glaring at Valerie.

"Hope you didn't have to wait too long?" Sam asked.

"Nah, Weather is quite nice today. I didn't mind." Danny said.

"Good, we were planning on going to Tucker's house. You coming along?" Sam asked.

"Lead the way. Sorry Valerie, till a next time I guess." Danny apologised.

"Yeah, sure…" Valerie answered though again being completely ignored by the other two teens.

At that moment the latter had had enough. "Okay, what is with you guys?! Why do you two act like I don't even exist? You guys don't like me very much, do you?!" Valerie ranted.

"We don't know you very much. And honestly, you used to be pretty mean to us. You think we're just going to start hanging out just like that?" Sam said earning a nod from Tucker. Danny wisely took a step back knowing that this was between them.

Valerie was a little bit shocked and looked at Danny for some support.

"Don't look at me… I have no idea what is going on and I think this is best solved between the three of you." Danny said.

Valerie froze for a split second but then nodded. She knew he was right and Sam had a point.

"I… I guess you have a point." Valerie said with a slightly sad tone. "I have to go to work. See you later Danny."

Danny said nothing but gave her a solid nod. He then turned around joined Sam and Tucker on their way to the latter's house.

"I might be wrong about this but that was pretty harsh back there." Danny commented.

"She did deserve it Danny. Trust us on this one." Tucker answered.

"I do trust you guys, just stating the facts. Ever thought about second chances?" Danny asked.

Tucker and Sam cocked an eyebrow at this statement but otherwise remained silent. It was a pretty standard question but there was something deeper behind it.

"I know I have…" Danny continued. "It takes two lands to build a bridge on. Someone just needs to take the first step." He said.

"Maybe, we'll see." Sam answered.

Tucker however looked very opposed to the idea, seeing as he had suffered a lot over the years due to the treatment he received from the A-list Valerie used to be a part of. "I don't know about that…" he murmured.

"Just think about it." Danny said.

The rest of the walk to Tucker's house was spend with marginally lighter conversation, steering away from the subject of Valerie and the A-list by extension. After about fifteen minutes of walking they arrived at the small home Tucker inhabited. It was small but still roomy to normal standards. Though still smaller than the mansions both Sam and Danny inhabited. Build in a more densely build area of the city it was a blue painted, two story house with a triangular roof.

Tucker fished the key out of his pocket, unlocked the door and held it open for his two friends. "I welcome you at 'casa Del Foley'." He said.

"What, you're a bi-linguist now? With the Spanish?" Danny joked.

"Multi linguist actually, I speak Esperanto as well." Tucker said proudly.

"Ah that constructed language used all around the world. Why would you know how to speak that?" Danny asked slightly intrigued.

"Well, it's the international language spoken amongst nerds." Sam said.

"Oh really, well isn't that ironic." Danny said.

"What? Why?" Tucker asked.

"Didn't you know Esperanto is also frequently used by ghosts as well? Besides Latin of course." Danny explained.

"And how would you know that?" Sam asked.

"And why would nerds speaking it be ironic." Tucker asked.

By now the three teens had entered the house and Tucker had shut the door. All three of them walked into the living room where Tucker's mother was seated. She had been listening to the conversation the three teens were having but they hadn't noticed her yet. She did notice the new face walking in her home.

"Well because the nerds are often the most invisible social group and ghosts can turn 'invisible'. Eh…?" Danny said making the face he always made while making his witty and often rubbish puns.

He got his answer in the form of two deadpan expressions and a faint smile at the corner of Sam's mouth. "And I'll let myself out now…" Danny said.

At this moment Angela decided to cut in. "Not until we have been introduced young man." She said warmly.

"Oh, hi mom." Tucker greeted. "Is dad around?" he asked.

"He should be around somewhere sweetie, check the garage. And who is your new friend?" Angela asked.

"I'm Daniel Fenton, but most people tend to call me Danny." Danny said.

Angela noticed his distinct accent and the last name did sound familiar as well. "Pleasure to meet you Danny, I'm Angela. Tucker's mother, but you might have already guessed that." She said. "Fenton? I know that name from somewhere." She mused.

"Oh, you might know it from Fentonworks, the company. Not related to those Fentons by the way." Danny lied.

"No, I mean yes also that but I know that name from somewhere else. But you're not from Amity so it might be someone else I'm thinking of." Angela said.

"What do you mean Mrs. Foley?" Sam asked.

"Well, I used to know some guy named Fenton in college. Could be family of you." Angela said to Danny.

"He could have been my father, my parents used to live in Amity before moving after college." Danny said. "We only moved back here a few weeks ago."

"Oh, small world then." Angela said.

"Indeed." Danny answered. "Pleasure to meet you Mrs. Foley."

"Hey mom, we're going up to my room ok." Tucker said.

"Of course honey." Angela answered.

The three went upstairs afterwards to Tucker's room. During the time they were there Tucker's father made his introduction to Danny as well. Danny learned that Mt. Foley or Maurice as he told him to call him was a police officer in Amity Park. Afterwards the three friends kept themselves busy with playing games or telling stories of past events. The latter being mostly done by Sam and Tucker about all the things that happened in Amity Park so far. As far as they could tell there hadn't been very major ghost attacks yet. Not like what had happened in London or the rest of Europe.

Danny all the while tried to steer away from his past as much as possible, he didn't want his new friends to know of his social isolation back in the UK. It was a bit painful to remember all that and there was a definitive reason why he was like this, there were drawbacks in having a family like his.

A couple of hours later Danny had to return home again. He grabbed his stuff and prepared to set out. "Alright guys, I need to go home about now. Catch you all next time." Danny said.

"Okay dude, see you around." Tucker said before focusing back on his game against Sam.

"Hey Danny, interested in doing a video chat tonight? We could talk and play some more." Sam asked.

Danny pondered for a bit. As tempting as it would be to hang out with Sam and Tucker some more he also wanted to go on patrol tonight and hopefully make contact with the Red Huntress. So in the end he had to decline on the offer.

Danny signed. "I would really like to Sam, but I have stuff to do tonight." He said.

"The whole night?" Sam asked incredulously.

"Yeah…" Danny said slightly awkward. "It's some family business. I won't be able to join you guys. Sorry."

"Alright, that's fine. See you next time." Sam said slightly dejected as Danny left the room. They heard him say goodbye and as soon as the front door closed again she paused the game.

"What the…? Sam!" Tucker shouted at the sudden pause.

"Tucker, I might just be imagining this. But I think Danny is hiding something." Sam said.

"What makes you say so?" Tucker asked.

"He's awfully quiet about his past, he like never talks about his time in the UK or even friends he has there. Don't you think that's a bit suspicions?" Sam asked.

"Maybe, but he could have a reason not to tell us. I mean we haven't known him for a long time yet. You and I go back for years in that aspect." Tucker said.

"Yes, but still…" Sam said.

"Sam, have you told me everything there is to know about you? I think not, I haven't even been to your house yet. Ever!" Tucker said. "When he trusts us enough he might tell us something more, right now we can only wait."

"That is surprisingly wise of you. Who are you and what have you done to Tucker?" Sam joked.

"Haha, but I'm serious though. Give him some time, he'll come around." Tucker said.

'Or he just drops us in favour for the popular crowd. Like everyone would.' Sam thought. "I guess you're right." she said.

 **Amity Park, evening**

Darkness had fallen over Amity and the streets were semi-deserted. The normal citizen would think everyone was either inside or on their way home. Little did they know what was going on top of the city rooftops.

Two pigeons could be seen cuddling on the edge of an apartment block completely oblivious to anything around them. That is until one of the birds heard a sound behind him. It looked around just in time to see a dark figure appear out of nowhere, its bright green eyes looking at it.

Spooked the two birds flew off as fast as they could, all romantic thoughts forgotten. The dark figure crouched behind the ledge of the building, invisible to anyone or anything still on the streets and scanned the sky and horizon.

'Scanning…no contacts detected' was displayed on the figure's HUD.

"Damn, that one time you need a ghost to find someone…" The figure said.

He then pushed a few buttons on the touchpad on his left gauntlet. "Phantom to Cerberus base…" he said.

"Copy Phantom, what do you need…?" Came as an answer over the radio.

"I have nothing on my sensors, what does the 'big eye' tell us…?" Phantom asked.

"Stand by…, got a signal. At the waterfront, try the docks…" Cerberus answered.

"Appreciated, Phantom out…" he answered.

Taking out his hover board and activating his cloak again he took off in western direction towards the docks. Landing silently on one of the warehouses he scanned the surroundings again, hoping to find something. And find something he did, he detected something that looked like a level four ghost not too far away. Using his jump pack he bridged the gap between the warehouse and a large stack of containers and clambered onwards in the direction of the signal.

As he got closer he began to hear what sounded like beam weapon discharges and saw bright flashes close by. Opting to take a better look he jumped to the next stack of containers and peeked around invisibly. Only to see a big wooden crate flying right at him.

"Whoa!" He huffed as he pulled back behind the container stack while the wooden box shattered against the stack and its debris flew past him.

"Shipping crates? Who the hell is throwing that around?" He pondered. He got his answer about half a second later.

"BEWARE!" was screamed by a spectral voice. "FOR I AM THE BOX GHOST? MASTER OF EVERYTHING CARDBOARD AND SQUARE! TREMBLE FOR MY AWESOME MIGHT!"

"Box ghost? Really?" Danny asked himself. "That's a stupid name. Though kind of familiar, where do I know it from?"

"Not gonna happen you blue spook!" a second voice shot back. Literally, as a pink-purple beam of energy shot past the spectre Danny presumed was the Box ghost.

'And there is the person I was looking for.' He thought. 'Perfect, let's see how she does. It's a level four, she should be able to handle it.'

At the same time the Box ghost levitated two more nearby crates and flung them at the Red Huntress, she jumped left and ducked right to dodge them. Afterwards she fired two more shots at the offending spectre, none of them connected. Though they were very close. The box ghost flew up in the air to avoid the Huntress and she followed by extending what looked like a jet-powered surfboard from her feet.

'Hmm, jet-sled. Nice.' Danny thought.

The Huntress rocketed upwards, bashing the front of her jet-sled into the Box ghost. The latter, being surprised by the momentum lost control over his flight and crashed down in a pile of shipping crates. Smashing them in the process. When the ghost emerged again his face was stricken with rage.

"YOU! YOU MADE ME DESTROY MY BELOVED BOXES OF DOOOM! PREPARE… TO SHARE THEIR FATE!" the box ghost screeched while raising his arms and making his hands glow blue.

Immediately more boxes came flying in and began making orbit around the Box ghost. Ranging from cardboard to wood and even a few metal boxes the sight of them all making circles around the enraged spectre was fear inducing.

The Huntress aimed her rifle but couldn't seem to get a good shot on the ghost due to all the boxes flying in the way. Next thing she knew several of the boxes had turned into projectiles aimed straight for her. Thinking quickly she started flying backwards and firing on the boxes aimed for her. She wasn't fast enough though.

One of the crates she shot splintered but the debris had enough momentum to hit her. Her blaster was knocked out of her hands and a metal crate smashed into her jet-sled, throwing her off in the process. This did lead to her falling down and the rest of the square projectiles missing her.

The Huntress crashed onto her back on the hard concrete of the cargo dock, mostly unharmed due to the suit but with Box ghost floating right over her.

"NOW FEEL THE AWESOME MIGHT… OF THE BOX GHOST!" the Box ghost screamed. He then made his hands glow again and one of the top containers on a nearby stack began floating upwards.

"Oh shit…" The huntress said as she saw the container floating up and come towards her. 'This is where I die, crushed beneath a shipping container' she thought.

"NOW TREMBLE BEFORE MY POWER… THE UNDEFIATEBLE BOX GH….." the Box ghost screamed before he was interrupted by a strange sounding gunshot and was electrocuted. His focus was broken and the container he was levitating plummeted down and crashed into the ground together with more containers it hit on the way down with a thunderous bang. Meanwhile the Box ghost had fallen onto the ground as well, still spazzing out due to being electrocuted.

The Huntress was stunned, one moment she was about to be crushed. The next the offending ghost was on the ground having a seizure and the container he was holding was laying on the ground on its side. The next moment a thick, blue, translucent beam shot by her and captured the Box ghost in blue light for a moment before he was dragged back towards the beam's origin behind her. The next moment there was silence, only the sound of water splashing against the docks nearby and a faint echo of the container crash.

Then there was the sound of footsteps behind her. Heavy footsteps, like metal hitting the ground. She rolled from her back onto her belly so she could look behind her. For a second she saw nothing, but then the air in front of her distorted for a split second before what looked like a pair of legs and the end of a trench-coat. A pair of armoured legs she might add, and they appeared out of nowhere.

Slowly raising her head to see who or what was standing in front of her and who she suspected saved her. You can say she was very surprised about who it was. She saw what was definitely a person, possibly a man clad in a black and white suit of armour with neon green decals. The head was hidden beneath a hood that was part of the same trench-coat she saw on the person. The only thing she could see under the hood were the outlines of a metal mask, a breathing filter in place of a mouth and two glowing green slits as eyes staring down at her. The thing was… she knew this silhouette all too well. Though she never saw him in person before his identity was not a secret, the Phantom.

In his left hand he held a device that looked like a white and green soup-thermos, though that quickly disappeared as he put it away on his back. In his right he still held the gun he likely used to shoot the Box ghost, and it wasn't a small one.

He might not be able to see her face but he could see she was surprised if slightly awed by his presence. Deciding to break the silence Danny spoke. "Evening miss…" he greeted with the deep voice the suit provided.

"Um…uhh…" The Huntress stuttered.

Danny chuckled and holstered his pistol back on his right leg. "Quiet place you've got here, though maybe not the safest place to hang out at night." He said as he extended his hand towards her, offering to help her up.

The Huntress took the offer being to bewildered of what had happened. "You… you're the real one aren't you?" she asked as she stood up.

"I'm afraid you're going to be a little more specific miss." Danny said.

"Ugh, you know what I mean. You're the Phantom aren't you? Legendary ghost hunter. Why did you help me? I had everything under control." She said slightly ticked off and her prideful demeanour resurfacing.

"Legendary might be a little gushy, but yes same guy. And I'm sure you had everything under control here. It's not like you were about to be crushed by say… a cargo container?" Danny said, crossing his arms.

The Huntress cringed a little, he did save her life. She couldn't ignore that fact. "…Yeah…right. Sorry about that. It's just…" She apologised.

"Don't mention it." Danny said, calming her down a bit.

After the Huntress had some time to calm down she asked the question on the front of her mind. "What are you doing here? You should be in Europe." She said.

"Change of hunting grounds. Ectoplasmic activity back there was diminishing, while here it is on the rise. Prime spot for work and research." Danny explained.

"Oh, and why did you save me? You'd have less competition if you didn't." She asked.

"There is no competition in this business. We're all in this together, no matter what." Danny said.

"But why show yourself to me. I mean you disappeared for over a month and could have easily evaded me after capturing that ghost. Why did you make yourself known?" Huntress asked.

"Because I was looking for something." Danny said rather cryptic.

"Looking for what?" Huntress asked.

"Potential…" He said.

The Huntress was taken aback, there were a lot of things Phantom might have said in this situation but she never would have dreamed to hear those words from him. Meanwhile the Phantom had turned around and walked to where her blaster was laying on the ground from when it was knocked out of her hands.

"I do admit I've been watching you working for a while now." He said as he picked up the weapon and inspected it. "Is this Axiom tech?" He asked.

The Huntress was snapped out of her stupor by this question. "Uh, yes. It's the best thing I could get my hands on. Why such an interest in me?" She asked.

"Because you're new to this." Danny said as he tossed the blaster back to her. "Because I see a lot of things in you."

"Like what?" Huntress asked as she stashed her weapon away.

"You're brave for starters. Not everyone dares to go toe to toe with a paranormal being." Phantom said. "That being said you're also brash, impatient, overzealous and you might have some anger issues towards ghosts." He continued, letting her know that he wasn't here because she impressed him. Because she hadn't.

"Oh…" was the only thing she said.

"But none of that is irredeemable. I do see potential in you, though I might need to steer you in the right direction a bit." Danny said.

"Wait,…are you offering to train me?" She asked.

"I might be…" Danny said before he turned his head because he began hearing sirens in the distance. "But not tonight, I'd rather not be seen publicly yet. And unless you want to pay for the damages here I suggest you get going as well."

The Huntress looked around to the devastation caused by the fight. "Yeah, I'm not paying for this. I'm short on cash as it is. But how will I find you next time?" she asked as she called her jet-sled back to her.

"You don't, I'll find you. We'll be in touch miss Huntress, goodnight." Danny said as he used his jump pack to thrust himself onto a container stack. "I trust you will keep my presence here in Amity to yourself. I don't want my face all over the morning news." He said over his shoulder.

The Huntress nodded. "I'll keep quiet."

Danny gave a firm nod back before activating his cloaking engine again. The last thing the Huntress saw was him disappearing into nothingness and the faint sound of a hover board flying of a few seconds later. Then she was all alone again.

"Huh, never thought that would happen. Better get out of here." She said to herself before boosting off onto her jet-sled. Without anyone knowing any of them were ever there.

 **And that wraps up chapter 5. Again I apologise for the long wait but I have been extremely busy lately and I will still be busy in the near future. So don't expect regular updates because that will literally be impossible for me to handle as I can only write sporadically. I will try to make up for it in length and quality.**

 **So now that Danny has met Valerie in both alter-ego's we can work on some character and story development for both. Sam and Tucker will also be in the spotlight but not for the ghost hunting part just yet. Keep in mind that neither knows the other's identity just yet (that'll come later in the story). Also if there are any episodes or ideas that you guys think I absolutely have to include in some way feel free to let me know.**

 **Reviews:**

 **Kimera20: I'm loving the compliments. And yes, I am planning some pairings for the story and will try to focus in on them to the best of my abilities. I really suck at writing any romance. And I guess there is enough time to focus in on them since the story will take place over a period of about two years. (At least that's the plan right now). The pairings themselves though are still a secret, you'll figure them out eventually. Wouldn't want to spoil the surprise.**

 **Hope you all enjoyed, but please if you do leave a review. We really appreciate the input, it can only make the content better. Thank you. Until next time.**


	6. Chapter 6: Origins of the Huntress

**Chapter 6: Origins of the Huntress**

 **Fentonworks, morning**

"As you can see the devastation here at the Amity Park docks is severe. Investigators are still working to find the cause and more importantly, the culprit of this incident. As you can see behind me several containers and a couple dozen crates have been destroyed or thrown around. It is still unknown what the costs of the damage will be but preliminary guesses say it would be around several ten thousands of dollars. This is Lance Thunder for Amity Park News. Back to you Tiffany." A news reporter said during the morning broadcast.

"Thank you Lance. As earlier stated the cause of this incident are as of yet unknown. Though several sources have mentioned the involvement of ectoplasmic entities or 'ghosts' is this matter." A red haired female reporter identified as Tiffany Snow by the header on the side of the screen said from the studio while a stock image of a green level two ghost was shown behind her. "Though there is no need for panic as these reports are yet unconfirmed. We will be back on this when there is more news. On to our next…" she continued before Jazz muted the audio.

"Seems you have been busy last night." She said absent minded to Danny who just walked in the kitchen still dressed in his pyjamas not quite awake with a steaming cup in his hand.

"Whu… oh that…" Danny said with a sleepy voice. He stretched for a moment trying to get a bit more awake. "Yeah, that was the ghost I encountered. Had this power to telepathically control boxes and about anything square in the storage department by extension. Called himself the Box ghost." He said as he took a sip from his cup.

"What,… like a crate creep?" Jazz asked.

"Basically." Danny said.

"You caught it right?" Jazz asked.

"Of course I did, I did some scans of his for the database and then flushed him back into the ghost zone. I gave the data to mom and dad before I went to sleep." Danny said as he filled a cereal bowl and sat down at the table.

Just at that moment Jack and Maddie entered the kitchen as well. Setting down for breakfast.

"Morning kiddos!" Jack greeted in his usual exited self.

"Hey dad." Both Jazz and Danny greeted.

"So, anyone have some special plans for today?" Maddie asked.

"No, not really." Jazz replied. "Maybe take a day off or something."

"Eh… maybe work a bit on my project downstairs. See if I can get it right this time. By the way did we find out anything new from the Box ghost?" Danny asked.

"Not much sweetie, it was a pretty standard ghost. Standard powers, given some time he might develop more powers but right now he only seems dangerous when he's near to boxes." Maddie summarised.

"But he is no match for the Fentons isn't he son!" Jack said while slapping Danny on the back.

"Humph…, sure dad." Danny said as he choked on his tea a little when his dad slapped him on the back.

"And what about that Huntress girl? She'll be a fine ghost hunter as well!" Jack continued with unstoppable enthusiasm.

"Let's not escalate this too much already dad. We still know too little about her." Danny said.

"Not to mention that we don't know if she can be trusted yet." Jazz added.

"Jazz…" Danny began.

"No brother, I mean I've seen all of it since the beginning. There is a lot at stake here, including your and by extension all of our identities and lives. Can we trust her with that?" Jazz asked.

"I don't know yet and I'll keep her at a distance for now. Until I know more about her. Don't worry, I've got this." Danny said.

 **Fentonworks laboratory, late morning**

About two hours later Danny was sitting at one of the workstations down in the lab, tinkering at the insider of a small cylinder filled with wires, tubes and emitters. Wearing his white labcoat with a black Phantom skull symbol on the back his parents made for him and a pair of safety glasses to keep him from harm. Quietly and expertly soldering the last parts and wires in place.

"Phew, that's that." Danny said as he turned his soldering bolt off and put the soldering wire away. Taking a second to look at his creation.

"Now the focusing part and the battery." He said as he picked the cylinder up and walked to a reinforced safety cabinet. Before putting it in the cabinet he did hook up the battery first. "Let's hope this works." He prayed.

He slotted the device he made in the safety cabinet, put on some safety gloves and grabbed a pair of tongs. Then opening a reinforced cooling box containing the last piece he needed.

"Very gently…" Danny murmured as he took out a tiny piece of radiating green material out of the box and slotted it in the final open spot of his device, locked it in place and closed the safety cabinet.

"Okay, prototype test seven. Solidified pure ectoplasm." He said. "And go."

Danny turned on the device which immediately began emitting power into the piece of solid ectoplasm with the purpose of forming a stable arc of energy. Just a millisecond after it was activated a stable beam shot out of the top exhaust, however the solidified piece began to destabilise and Danny could see energy began to arc out in every direction. There was just too much power for it to handle. The beam destabilised before arching out against the insides of the insides of the safety cabinet. Danny's eyes grew wide and he ducked down just in time before the device violently exploded. When he rose back up all energy had died down and the insides of the cabinet were blackened.

Danny signed. "Prototype test failure, solidified ectoplasm not adequate as focusing component for energy beam. Will look at other possibilities." He said into the recorder whilst taking his glasses off. He wasn't happy with his project failing again.

"There's always a next time…" he signed.

At that moment Jazz came running around the corner since she heard the explosion. Being the protective older sister she is she had to check if Danny was ok. "Danny! There was an explosion…" She said.

"Yes I noticed that." Danny sassed. "I'm fine."

Jazz took a quick look to the safety cabinet. "Didn't work again did it?" she asked.

Danny signed. "No, and I know why it is. The focusing part of it can't handle the power fluctuations of the beam. Without that part working the thing will just keep exploding." He said.

Jazz hummed. "Don't worry, you'll figure it out eventually like you always do." She said.

"Hopefully…" Danny said before his phone which was laying on the table nearby, but still outside the blast zone (that thing is expensive) vibrated.

"Saved by the phone?" Jazz asked.

"Seems like it." Danny said as he walked over and picked up his custom smartphone.

"Huh, a message from Sam." Danny commented before he began reading it.

"Sam again huh…" Jazz said with a teasing voice whilst wagging her eyebrows.

"It's nothing like that." Danny said with maybe a little too much volume.

"Sure little brother." Jazz said not really believing him.

Danny only growled a bit. 'Nosy sisters…' he thought. He then continued reading the message. Danny subconsciously smiled at her invitation to hang out yet again. They might not know a lot about him but it didn't stop them from liking him. "I'll be on my way in twenty minutes." He send back.

Danny looked down at himself in his lab coat. 'I should change…' He thought.

 **Amity Park, noon**

Sam and Tucker were arriving at the parking lot of the Nasty Burger where Sam had agreed to meet Danny. Tucker had been notified after Sam got confirmation of Danny. Thanks to the fact that they lived more centrally in Amity Park they arrived well before Danny.

They waited for some time until they heard noises from around the corner of the restaurant. When they went to investigate they saw Valerie, dressed in the Nasty Burger employee uniform handing out flyers and coupons to the passer-by's. Though she was being very unsuccessful at her job namely due to several young adults in letterman jackets harassing her.

"What's with the long face Gray? I'd say you're just in the right spot, serving junk food. Just like you." A blonde jock Sam and Tucker knew as Dash Baxter taunted.

Valerie was seething with anger at this moment but she couldn't do anything to them. Her boss was watching her from the inside and being unfriendly to potential clients would get her fired. And she really needed this job.

She swallowed her anger and made her best 'happy employee' face. "Welcome to the Nasty burger, could I interest you in some of our special deals?" she asked with barely contained rage.

"Yeah, hey boys. You guys know what a loser covered in Nasty sauce looks like?" Dash asked the group.

Sam and Tucker looked at one another, contemplating if they should step in. Sam shook her head, she wasn't going to step in for a person who used to bully her and her friend for years without end. She thought she finally got what she deserved. Tucker however had other ideas.

"Sam, we should help her out." Tucker whispered to Sam whilst they were still hidden behind the corner.

"Why should we do anything?! Don't you remember what she did to us in the past?" Sam whispered back.

"Yes, I do remember that well enough. But now she has no-one left to go to. And she can't do anything to Dash because she'll be fired." Tucker said.

"I still don't see how that's my problem Tuck." Sam shot back.

"Do you remember what Danny told us about this? It takes two land to build a bridge, I've been thinking about that. Maybe we should just… try." Tucker said hesitantly.

Sam signed. "Maybe you're right, but this doesn't mean anything." She said.

"Come on then." Tucker said as they both rounded the corner to step in.

The group of jocks didn't see the two coming and were only alerted when they were three meter away from them and Sam called them out on.

"HEY! KNUCKLEHEADS!" She shouted, drawing the attention of dash and his cronies. And also a group of girls they knew as part of the A-listers who were standing on the other side of the street observing.

"What? WTF Manson, why don't you just screw off and mind your own business." Dash said dangerously.

"Why don't you do that and let Valerie do her job?! She gets enough unfriendly clients as it is, she doesn't need you and your posse to provide more!" Sam shot back, not missing the astonished and grateful look Valerie send her.

Dash's face turned bead red, he opened his mouth to shout his retaliation towards Sam and Tucker. He never got the chance to however when Sam's steel-toed boot connected with his chin. He instead cried out in pain and started jumping around holding his bruised leg.

"Auwch, that's gotta hurt." Tucker remarked.

"Fact." Valerie chimed in with a smile.

"Get out of here you assholes!" Sam ordered as Dash and his posse retreated.

"That was good." Tucker commented.

"Yeah." Sam said as she turned around to look at Tucker and Valerie. "Some misplaced aggression does me well."

"Hey Sam…?" Valerie asked. "Thanks, I would've lost it if you guys didn't step in."

"Yeah, sure Valerie. This doesn't make us friends thought." Sam reminded her. "Don't get any ideas."

"Oh I know." Valerie said shrugging. "It's just nice to have someone look out for you every once in a while."

"Yeah, right." Tucker commented, remembering how Valerie used to act towards them in the past.

"Hey, uh about what happened in the past… I'm sorry alright. I regret what I've done back then." Valerie said as she turned around slightly to change position to hand out flyers.

"Why now? It's not like you ever cared before today?" Sam asked.

"Maybe I just had some revelations over the past few days. Life is too short to hold on to the past." Valerie said. "And for the record, I do care. I'm just not the best at showing it." She said before walking off.

"Well what do you know? Maybe there is hope after all." Sam said before looking Tucker in the eyes.

"Nah…" Tucker answered jokingly.

Only then did they notice the footstep of a person approaching them. They turned around only to be greeted by Danny's face coming up on them.

"So? Did I miss anything important?" Danny asked slyly.

Tucker chuckled a bit before Sam spoke. "You saw everything didn't you?"

"Only the last part, when you kicked that guy's chins. Dare I ask who that was?" Danny asked.

Sam scowled for a moment. "He's a bully from school." She said.

"And he was harassing Valerie…" Tucker added.

"Ah, and you guys helped her." Danny said with a smile.

"I guess we did. This doesn't mean anything though." Sam said.

"I'm not saying anything." Danny said as he held his hands up in defence. "Change of subject though, what are we doing today?" he asked.

"I was thinking of going to my house for a change." Sam said.

"Your house, but we've never been there." Tucker said. "I have never been there."

"Well, there's a first time for everything. Lead the way Sam." Danny said as the three took off.

"I've got to warn you Danny, my parents are very weird." Sam warned.

Danny laughed, drawing strange looks from his friends.

"What's so funny?" Tucker asked.

Danny snickered. "Heh, you say your parents are weird? I'd like to see that. Believe me, my parents are ten times worse than yours I assure you." He said.

"Oh dude, that's a tough one to beat you know. Might be better to give up now." Tucker joked.

"Give up? Never!" Danny said.

 **Sam's house, afternoon**

"Ok, I did not really expect this." Danny said.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME SAM! YOU NEVER TOLD ME YOU WERE RICH!" Tucker shouted.

They were standing in front of a large estate smack dab in the middle of Amity Park. The house looked old but it was well kept and radiated wealth.

"I know, I should have told you this a long time ago, but my family's kind of...filthy rich. Weird, huh?" Sam said.

Tucker dropped his backpack in surprise. "Whoa! Time-out! You're loaded?" he asked astonished.

"My great-granddad Izzy was an inventor. He invented that machine that twirls cellophane around deli toothpicks." Sam explained.

"You're the deli toothpick cellophane-twirling heiress? No way!" Tucker exclaimed.

"Now it's not that big of a deal Tucker." Danny said.

"Are you kidding, this is awesome!" Tucker said. "Okay, okay. Just a few more questions. Could you buy a plane?" he asked.

"Yep." Sam answered dully.

"A yacht?" He asked.

"Yep." Sam answered dully. Again.

"Um...a bowling alley?" Tucker tried.

"Bloody hell Tucker would you stop it?" Danny said.

"Actually, no." Sam said. "There's no room for a second one." She said as they walked to the front door.

"You're kidding right?" Tucker asked.

"I don't think she is Tuck." Danny said.

"But dude, this is… you can't not be shocked by this?" Tucker said.

"Truthfully I am, but what difference does it make. I'm not going to treat her differently than before." Danny said absent minded as he observed the inside of the house.

"Oh Sammykins, is that you?" Came a voice in the other room.

"Oh no, brace yourselves guys. Here comes my mom." Sam said.

A woman with bright orange hair wearing a bright and frilly dress walked into the room. She had this air of filthy rich around her and a posture that matched the part.

"And hello to you too…Tucker." Pam said slightly less cheery.

"Okay, I'm retracting the earlier statement." Danny said.

Now Pam focused her attention on the newcomer. "And who might you be young man?" she asked.

"Uhm, I'm Danny." Danny said.

"He's new in town mom. He just moved here." Sam said.

"Oh, so where are you from young man? And what's your full name?" Pam asked.

Danny made a confused face and Sam decided to intervene. "Oh no mom, you're not scaring off another one. Come on guys let's go to the cellar." She said and immediately dragged Danny and Tucker with her.

"You know, I'd like to come back on my earlier statement. Your parents are crazy by the looks of it." Danny said as Sam dragged him down the stairs.

Not too long after they arrived in the basement which housed an enormous home cinema.

"Well, you weren't kidding." Danny said before looking down at his hand. "Can I have my hand back now?" He asked seeing that Sam was still holding it.

Sam looked down and almost immediately released it. She laughed stiffly and turned away slightly so he wouldn't see her blush.

Danny shook his hand around for a moment. "I must say that was a tight handshake." He said before looking at a drooling Tucker. "Should we help him? He's about to drool on your carpet."

Sam snapped to her senses. "What, Tucker! No!" She shouted.

Meanwhile Danny was snooping around in the room until something dawned on him. "Hey, didn't you say you had a bowling alley?" he asked.

Sam said nothing and just smirked when she held up a remote and pushed a button making the nearby wall slide open to reveal an entire bowling alley.

"Nice." Commented Danny.

At that moment and old woman in a scooter rides up to one of the lanes with a bowling ball in hand. She rolls and scores a strike. "Yippee! Bubbe's hot tonight!" She cheers.

"My grandmother." Sam remarks. "Hi grandma!" She greets.

"Hi bubeleh, who's your new friend?" The old woman asked.

"Afternoon ma'am." Danny greeted. "I'm Daniel, but most people call me Danny."

"Oh don't call me ma'am honey, that makes me feel old. My name is Ida. But call me grandma." Ida said.

"Uhm…?" Danny hummed.

"You're not getting out of this dude." Tucker said.

"No excuses young man, everyone calls me grandma. And so will you." Ida said.

Danny shrugged. "Alright then. Mind if we join you? It's been a while since I did bowling." He asked.

"You want to bowl?" Sam asked.

"Yes, yes I do Sam. I just said that." Danny joked.

"That's odd." Tucker suddenly remarked.

"What's odd?" Sam asked.

Tucker sniffs for a bit. "You don't smell like stinking rich." He remarked.

Sam groaned. "Will you stop it? That's the whole reason I didn't tell anybody." She said.

"But I don't get it. With all this money, why do you hang out with me and Danny? If you flash a little of that bling bling, you'd be Miss Popularity!" Tucker said. Not noticing the crunched eyebrows Danny gave him. Little did they know he was in the same position as her.

"I don't need popularity, Tucker, especially not if I have to buy it." Sam said. "Danny, say something."

"I have to agree with Sam, I would do the same thing if I were in her position." Danny said. 'Heh, "if" as in "am".' He thought.

"See, it's not all about popularity Tuck." Sam said.

"Just stating the possibilities Sam, it's not like it's impossible for you to achieve." Tucker said.

"Can we just stop about this? Danny, you wanted to bowl?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, I did. Do we have to change shoes?" Danny asked as he stepped up the bowling lanes next to Ida.

"If you wish." Sam said as she joined him and her grandmother with Tucker in tow.

"Great." Danny said as he took his shoes off and looked for a pair that would fit him while Sam lectured Tucker on the use of a bowling ball.

"The ball goes on the pins, and NOWHERE ELSE." Sam said.

"Sam, I know how to handle a bowling ball." Tucker deadpanned as he lifted one of the lighter balls.

"Then prove it." Sam said with a smirk.

Tucker took a moment to aim his swing, threw… and went into the gutter.

"I'm impressed Tucker. Seemed like right on target." Sam joked.

"It's been a while ok" Tucker pouted.

Then Danny emerged again. Having switched his shoes and carrying a ball of his own. "Okay, my turn." He said.

Danny threw his ball in the next aisle and managed to hit quite a few pins. No strike however. "Hmm, still got it." he said.

At that moment Ida rolled next to Danny. "You think you're good? Wait 'till you see me going boyo." She said.

Danny turned his head towards her and smirked playfully. "Is that a challenge grandma?" he asked.

"Oh no…" Sam said.

"You're on young man." Ida said challengingly.

"Oh, it is." Danny said back.

"Oh no…" Sam and Tucker said simultaneously.

 **Amity park rooftops, late evening**

Safe to say it went all downhill after the bowling challenge, Danny lost horribly to Ida and barely kept up against Sam. Tucker lost horrifically because he threw almost all his balls in the gutter. The three friends had a lot of fun though, and Danny learned a valuable lesson. Don't challenge Ida to a bowling game.

Right now night was falling over the city and a woman clad in red was leaning over the edge of a flat, hoping to find something tonight. Or someone.

Not far from where she was Danny was on the lookout, mentally still laughing of his defeat at the bowling game. Now he was back in his Phantom suit and looking specifically for the Red Huntress. He had some questions he wanted to ask her.

Landing silently on the roof she was on Danny invisibly made his way to the Huntress, halfway down the roof he decloaked. The Huntress still had no idea of his presence until he stood right next to her.

"Beautiful evening isn't it?" Danny said.

The Huntress snapped her head to the right where the hooded hunter stood. Initially surprised by his sudden appearance but calming down knowing that this is what he does. "It is, you certainly have a knack for appearing out of thin air." She said.

Danny laughed under his mask. "I have an image to keep Red." He said.

"What image? The world hardly knows anything about you." Red said.

"But that doesn't mean I don't have a reputation." Danny said.

"Okay." Red said, trying to be careful as she still barely knew the hunter. Which she knew could be very dangerous. "So, hunting for ghosts as well?" she asked.

"I'd rather avoid a fight for now. What I do want is some answers." Danny said as he turned his head to the Huntress, letting her stare right in his neon green eye sockets.

Slightly unnerved by the mechanical stare he gave her Red took a step back. "Uh, about what?" She asked nervously.

"About your motivations, why you became a ghost hunter. It's a profession that isn't taken lightly." Danny said.

Red crossed her arms defensively. "I don't see how that's any of your business Phantom." She shot back.

"Because I will very likely be working with you and I'll be instructing you. I need to know if I can trust you to do the right thing." Danny shot back.

"The right thing?! Simple, hunt and kill ghosts. There's nothing to it." Red argued.

Danny signed and shook his head. "There's a lot you don't know Huntress. The world of ghost hunting isn't as black and white as you think." He said.

"It is for me." Red said stubbornly as she turned her back to him.

"And that's what I want to know. Why do you do this? Why do you hate ghosts?" Danny asked.

"Because they ruined my life!" Red shouted as she turned around again to face Danny.

Danny wisely kept silent because he suspected she would begin ranting to vent her anger. And he was right.

"I had a perfectly good life, everything I wanted! I WAS HAPPY! Until that blasted ghost dog came in and ruined everything! It got my father fired, we lost our fortune, OUR HOME! I lost all my friends because of that dog!" Red ranted.

Several alarms were blaring in Danny's head. He had heard that story before, and he knew whose story it was.

"Now the only thing I want is my revenge on that putrid piece of…" Red cursed before she was interrupted by Danny.

"Hey hey, okay I get it. You want your revenge on a ghost you think that wronged you. But don't you think it's wrong to judge all ghosts because of one thing?" Danny asked.

Red faltered. "Well, maybe it is…" She said weakly.

"What if I told you there's only a small percentage of ghosts that mean us harm? That the most of them just want to be left alone?" Danny asked.

"Well…" Red said hesitantly.

"Would you give me a chance to prove my reasoning to you? Would you listen to me?" Danny offered.

"Well,…sure. Less ghosts to hunt is always better." Red said.

"Good, then all we need now is to find a ghost to prove my point." Danny said as he directed his gaze over the city.

Both hunters stayed above the streets for a bit longer. Jumping from building to building in an effort to find any ghosts that might be around. Then Danny got a signal.

"Red, hold up. I got something." Danny said as he suddenly stopped and directed his gaze towards the park.

"What have you got?" Red asked.

"Ectoplasmic signature, coming from over there." Danny said as he pointed to the park. They both leaped over the rooftops until they were in view of the park. Danny saw what looked like a glowing green puppy, Red however had her face twist to rage eve through her mask.

"Why that good for nothing vile piece of slime!" Red cursed as she took out what looked like an ectoplasmic grenade launcher and aimed at the ghost. "I have you now!"

Before Red could fire however Danny yanked the barrel down to stop her. "Wait!" He shouted. But he was only answered by getting butted in the chest by the weapon.

"Back off Phantom! This is my kill!" Red shouted.

"No, Red stop this! Remember what I said! Not all ghosts are evil!" Danny said.

"Fuck if they are, that is the ghost that ruined my life!" Red said as she pointed to the green puppy. "And I'm taking it down!"

"Red, wait. I believe there is a reason why he did what he did. Please let me prove this to you." Danny said.

Red grumble but conceded, knowing that if she did not this guy could easily disarm her if he wanted to. "Fine, but if you're wrong I'm killing it and you owe me an apology."

"Fine by me." Danny said before he reached into one of his pockets. "Here take this, so we can stay in contact while we fly." He said as he offered her a neon green earpiece.

"Uh, and that is?" Red asked.

"It's a portable radio linked to mine." Danny said as he tapped the side of his helmet. "And only to me, don't get any hopes of tracking me through it. I'll be wanting that back when we're done."

"Good, now let's go. We'll lose it." Red said after she fixed the radio under her mask and into her ear.

"Perfect, follow me." Danny said as he jumped off the roof and emerged seconds after standing on his hover-board.

Red follows seconds after as her jet-sled extends from her feet and she rockets after Phantom who's following the ghost dog at a distance. They kept chasing for a while until Red noticed where they were heading.

"Phantom, we're heading towards Axion labs." Red said over the radio.

"I noticed, we should land to avoid detection." Danny answered as he flew down and landed near the three line surrounding the Axion complex. Red landed next to him

"How would we get in? And where is that ghost dog anyway?" Red asked.

"He's inside." Danny said as he pointed to the building. "I can detect the signal through the walls. The question is how many security is present. You mentioned your father worked here?"

"He still does." Red said without thinking. "I mean…" she hesitated, getting a curious look from Danny even though she couldn't see his face.

"Ghrmm, fine. My dad was fired as head of security after that ghost dog broke in and messed the place up. He was later rehired as a security guard, he's doing night shift now."

"Alright, then let's try not to get your father into more trouble. We go in and out undetected via the roof." Danny said as he pointed. "You go high so they can't see you. I'll go straight through and disable the cameras for a while."

"And how will you go straight in?!" Red asked.

Danny chuckled and then tapped his wrist pad. "Watch and learn…" He said before vanishing in thin air as his cloaking device activated.

Red felt very stupid right now. 'Right, guy can go invisible…' she thought before taking out her jet sled and flying high up so security wouldn't be able to see her.

Meanwhile Danny had already gotten over the fence and to the other side of the courtyard. Now it was a matter of scaling the wall without making too much sound. He might be invisible but he could still make sound. Finding a nearby drainpipe and checking if it was well anchored to the wall. Then he started climbing. It took him a while to get to the first floor where a small flat roof was but he managed to do it undetected. There was a small fuse box he would use, to shut down the cameras. He opened the panel and linked his own suit computer to the Axion security system.

"Link to system, cameras,… loop footage." Danny said to himself. "Okay, now to the top." He said as he closed the panel again and continued his climb.

When he arrived Red had just descended on the roof as well. When he was safely over the ledge he dropped his cloak and walked over to her. "Okay, security disabled. We can enter." He said.

"What do you mean, disabled?" Red asked sceptically.

"I put the camera footage on a loop. We can walk around and it'll be like we were never here." Danny explained.

"I'm trusting you here." Red said wearily.

"Fine, that's what I'm here to do. Prove that we can trust EACH OTHER." Danny empathised.

Red just grumbled as Danny got to a roof hatch and carefully opened it without causing damage. "Well, here we go." Danny said as he jumped in the hatch. Red could faintly hear two rocket thrusters going off as he landed below. "Clear." Danny said over the radio.

Red attached a rope to the ceiling and rappelled down the hatch commando style, landing in what looked like a cafeteria.

Danny looked around to find his signal and then signalled to Red. "This way." He said, as he drew his pistol and walked out the cafeteria and into the lab.

Both hunters passed through different laboratory areas, some designated to chemistry, other to more obscure sciences. They passed several beaked with weird coloured fluids and even dismantled parts of what looked like weapons.

"Recognise any of this?" Danny asked Red absent minded.

"Some of it." Red said as she looked around. "Mostly the weapons though, I'm no hero in all the science."

"Do you trust me when I say that you don't want to know?" Danny said as he looked at a large vail of neon green gooey liquid and shuddered a little.

"Probably, shouldn't we be looking for that ghost?" Red shot back.

"Don't worry, we're almost there." Danny informed.

After a few more minutes of wandering and dodging a patrolling guard they arrived in a room that looked like a small assembly lab. The walls were filled with cabinets and in the room were several tables plotted down. But one could see that this was recent.

"I've got the signal. It's behind that wall." Danny said.

"Good." Red said as she took out her gun but was stopped by Danny.

"There has to be an easier way." Danny said.

The two looked for a few minutes until Danny found a cabinet on wheels. A light push made it move and soon Danny was in front of a door with a dusty plaque. "Red, I found it."

Red joined hem almost immediately as Danny ran his finger over the plaque and stopped. "Oh no…" He said as he grasped at the tragedy.

"What is it?" Red asked, to which Danny pointed at the plaque on the door. "Dog kennels." She read and then she faltered.

Both hunters stepped into the room and Danny turned on a couple flashlights mounted on his helmet, lighting up the dusty room filled with… dog cages. The only other light in the room came from the ghost dog they were chasing. Sitting in front of one of the cages.

"Red…, what type of security did Axion use before your father implemented his new plan?" Danny asked, not taking his eyes of all the cages.

"Normal security guards and… guard…dogs." Red said realising the situation.

"Then I think I get it." Danny said as he leaned slightly towards a wall. "After your father implemented his plan. The dogs became obsolete, and to save costs they were put down." He reasoned.

"Oh gods." Red said as her hands flew to where her mouth should be. "And that one?" She asked as she nodded at the small ghost several meters further.

"Most likely he was only a pup in training to be a guard dog. For some reason he was unable to move on." Danny explained.

"Poor thing…" Red said before she realised she just felt compassion for a ghost.

"You see my point now. He's just unable to move on. This place is the only tether he has to his former life. Or something here." Danny said.

Red just nodded. Feeling slightly ashamed for what she wanted to do to the pup.

"The question remains, what is he looking for?" Danny asked as he leaned further into the wall and heard a "squeak" sound.

Both Danny's, Red's and surprisingly the dog's head popped up at the sound and the dog trotted up to Danny tail wagging.

"Wait a second?" Danny said as he began pushing the wall looking for the sound. Every time he found it the dog got more and more exited.

Danny then stuck his hand between the cushions of the wall and pulled out… a squeaky toy. The pup was going mad, barking at him and downright begging for the toy.

"Ah." Danny said in realisation and he sat down on his knees in front of the dog. "You want this boy?" He asked, getting a bark in reply.

"Here you go." Danny said as he threw the toy to the pup, who happily accepted it. After a few moments of joy the pup came to Danny who gave him a scratch. "You aren't so bad are you? What's your name?" He asked as he took hold of the necklace the pup was carrying and looked at the name. "Cujo…"

"Well then Cujo, would you be so kind to go and return to the ghost zone? This really isn't a place for a ghost to hang out." Danny said.

Cujo barked and like that he took off and phased through the walls. Danny followed him on his scanned until the signal suddenly vanished, that's when he knew the pup was safely gone and turned to Red.

"We better get out of here." Danny said getting a nod from Red. Then the two hunters set off to make a silent escape from Axion.

 **Amity park outskirts, late evening**

Red and Danny had escaped Axion undetected and Danny had purged his presence from the system. Turning the camera's back to normal. Red was currently sitting on a rock trying to make sense of it all.

"Learned something tonight?" Danny asked.

"I had no idea. I just thought that all ghosts were evil, that they only wanted to harm us to feast on our emotions. I didn't know…" Red ranted. "I tried to hurt a lot of them without even knowing their story."

"And that is an important lesson. Understanding." Danny said. "To be an effective hunter you must know your prey, and you must know when not to hunt."

"But how will I know that?! I feel like I know nothing." Red said.

Danny laid his hand on Red's shoulder. "I'll show you the ropes. It's as they say, ghost hunters have to stand together." He ensured.

"Thank you, for offering me this chance." Red said.

"You're welcome. Let's keep it here for tonight, I'm sure you have a lot to think about." Danny said.

"That I do. Oh wait…" Red said as she reached under her mask and gave Danny his earpiece back. "I should give this back."

"Thank you, perhaps someday when I trust you enough I'll let you keep it." Danny said as he pocketed the device.

"Looking forward to it." Red said.

"Right then, cheerio." Danny said as he turned around to go home.

"Hey, thanks again. For opening my eyes." Red said.

"Just keep them open." Danny said before he went invisible.

"I'll try!" Red called after him.

'Let's hope you do, Valerie.' Danny thought.

 **Okay, end of chapter 6. I know it took a long time and you all know why so I won't repeat it again. Basically this chapter deals mostly with character development for Valerie since she was kinda forgotten in the original show. She'll be the focus for a few more chapters before Danny's school years starts again. Let me know what you think and if you have any ideas for future chapters or story arcs I would love to hear them.**

 **Reviews:**

 **Kimera20: I think you got what you wanted, well partially. There's still much more to come.**

 **SonicCrazyGal: I hope the wait wasn't too long. And a Dash/Danny confrontation would be kinda funny. Mostly because Danny really doesn't want to fight, and because he can break your arm if he wants to.**

 **moonmunirah97: I don't know that, search engine favouritism maybe.**

 **Anyways thanks for reading. Reviews and constructive criticism are greatly appreciated so don't hesitate to leave one behind. It really helps out. See you all next time.**


	7. Chapter 7: Present and past

**Chapter 7: Present and past**

 **Fentonworks, Late morning**

Danny was lying on his bed with his tablet in hand, going over the design plans of his personal project. Looking over the various components for any flaws or errors that could make it malfunction. Though he wasn't really focusing on that, he was focusing more on the fact that he figured out the Red Huntress' secret identity. And it wasn't even that hard to do, just connect the dots and you come to the only logical explanation. Valerie Gray was the Huntress.

Danny flopped his head and tablet down on the mattress. "Gah, what should I do now. I can't just hide the fact that I know who she is?" Danny asked himself.

He held the tablet up to his face again, closed the design plans and opened the Fenton database. "Red Huntress." He typed, calling up all known history on the huntress, which was not much to be honest.

"Just sightings, weapons used and any known details." Danny read. "Doesn't help at all." He said as he shut the database off and sat back up. "I should just tell her I know who she is. It'll be easier that way."

Danny got up from his bed, grabbed his tablet and made his way downstairs. He knew he would find his parents somewhere in the lab so he went that way. Jazz was in her room working on her doctorate so it would be best to leave her in peace. He went down the stairs leading to the lab to see both his parents leaning over a whole load of boxes.

"Huh, like Christmas morning." Danny said as he walked up to the crate stack and his parents.

"Oh, hi sweetie." Maddie greeted.

"Hey mom, what's all this stuff?" Danny asked.

"Just some more supplies dear. The communications equipment finally came in." Maddie said as she gave Danny the shipping manifest.

Danny looked over the list and found indeed more construction equipment, a lot of cables and wires, satellite dishes and other curious things. "Magnetic accelerator coils?" He asked.

"Oh, that's for the back yard son." Jack interjected from the other side of the pile.

"Back yard? Whatever, I don't want to know what you want to do with even more accelerator coils. I'll just see whatever you do with them. How're the rest of the vehicles doing anyway?" Danny asked.

"The hangar is finished and we're busy putting all the parts together." Maddie said. "Thought the jet is getting priority, it should be done in a few days."

"Good, seems like you both have your work cut out for you. I'll leave you to it." Danny said.

"Come on son, why not help your old man out for a change, it'll be fun. Some father-son bonding time over doing science." Jack beamed.

Danny smiled over his father's enthusiasm. "I'll have to decline for this one dad. Maybe next time." Danny said as he gave his mom the manifest back.

Jack pouted but nevertheless agreed. You didn't go in against a Fenton, and that meant any Fenton. "So what are you planning today son?" He asked.

"Well, I don't actually know?" Danny paused. "I think I might just go climb some buildings, explore Amity a bit more."

"Climb some buildings? Huh, as long as you don't fall down dear." Maddie said.

"Do I ever?" Danny joked, though he quickly lost his sly smile when Maddie gave him the look.

"Do you want that list chronologically or alphabetically?" Maddie asked.

"I retract my statement." Danny conceded. "I'll be fine mom."

"You better be young man." Maddie said. "Have fun." She called while Danny left the lab.

Danny then went back up to his room to grab some stuff and left the house about 10 minutes later. He didn't need much, just something to protect his hands with. So he grabbed some fingerless gloves with some light metal padding on the palms and his backpack.

He set off towards the outskirts of Amity containing the more abandoned side of things. A building what looked like an old factory and an abandoned railway station dominated the area.

"Well, this seems like a good place to start." Danny said. "I can work my way into the city from here. Maybe bring Valerie here to train."

He then found himself an adequate drainpipe to climb and hauled himself up. After a few minutes he was swinging from support beam to support beam and running over ledges. Making his way through the abandoned factories and warehouses on the side of the city. He could see the inhabited part of Amity nearby on one side and a more forested area on the other. Deciding he wanted to find a quiet place to sit and think he started climbing up to the highest point he could get, a rundown part of the roof with just enough room for him to sit down.

With view on the forest nearby Danny sat down and began to think over the events of the past few days. From the moment he met the Red Huntress to saving her from the container and later helping her break into Axiom, to witnessing Valerie make amends with Sam and Tucker. And finally the fact that he figured out that Valerie and the Huntress are the same person.

"What am I going to do about her?" Danny asked himself. "I don't even know how she'll respond to me knowing."

Thinking back on what he knew of her he chuckled. "She'll likely shout at me for knowing. It's no wonder she's sometimes described as violent by Sam or Tucker. Then again hiding it makes it only difficult, perhaps the truth is the best option. She seems to appreciate that." Danny said to himself.

He remained seated on the nook for a couple minutes longer having some time for himself. For those few moments the world outside and the ghost hunting didn't exist. This was nice.

When he got up a few moment later he took his time to survey the surrounding area bit. He had been looking at the abandoned buildings but the rest, not very much. Then again it was an abandoned area, nothing but peace and quiet and… movement on the ground?

Danny did a double take as he saw another person walking a little ways away from the industrial zone and towards a small patch of trees that stood nearby. This person was alone just like him and he should have recognised that raven black hear from the beginning. Even from this distance there was no doubt that he was looking at his friend Sam.

"Huh, what is she doing here? Mostly she's always accompanied by Tucker." Danny said to himself as he recalled that he has never seen his two friends without each other before. "Surprise I can even recognise her from here, then again with her individualistic nature…" he mused.

Suddenly Danny got an idea, with a wide smile on his face he fished out his phone from his pocked, dialled Sam's number and watched while he waited for an answer.

Meanwhile Sam was trying to have a relaxing walk to clear her head of the argument she had with her mother. Again their tastes had clashed violently when Pam tried to get her to wear a frilly pink dress, which she promptly transformed into something more appealing in her eye with a can of black spray-paint and a pair of scissors. Her mother was mad of course for destroying the dress but it was so satisfying.

So in order to escape the clutches of her mother she packed her backpack and a sketchbook and set out to one of her favourite places in Amity. The forest near the abandoned industrial zone. There you could find prime examples of nature reclaiming terrain and overgrowing the abandoned junk left by humans. It made for some pretty scenic pictures.

At least that was the plan before her phone went off. Thinking it was her mom again she pressed answer before even looking at the caller id. "MOM, I don't want to hear it! I'm not wearing that dress…!" She shouted.

"Mom? Well that's the first time I've been called that… And what's this thing about a dress?" Came from the other side of the line in a male voice with distinct British accent and was definitely not her mom.

Sam made wide eyes once she realised who she was talking to. "Danny?" She asked.

"No, Santa Claus." Danny said back. "Am I really saved as 'mom' in your phone or did you just pick up without checking who called?"

Sam chuckled, she might even change his name in her phone just to mess with him. "No and yes, I just expected someone else." She said.

"Well then, might that be the reason why you're walking to seemingly nowhere on your own?" Danny asked.

"What the…" Sam said before abruptly stopping and looking around. "How did you know where I was?" She asked incredulously.

"MAGIC!" Danny joked. "No, seriously behind you."

Sam turned around so fast it was almost a miracle she didn't fall. However she only saw the dirty walls of abandoned factories. "Up." Danny said over the line to which Sam looked slightly up the wall.

"I don't see anyone." Sam said.

"Look higher." Danny said which Sam did until her eyes came to the very top of the building she was looking at and saw Danny standing at the top.

"What the hell are you doing up there?" She asked.

"Sightseeing." Danny said sarcastically.

"Hardy har har…" Sam replied flatly.

"No, seriously I'm sightseeing. Ever heard of freerunning?" Danny asked.

"I might have. Isn't that like the sport where you climb buildings and stuff?" Sam asked.

"Exactly, wait. I'll come down, that makes a conversation much easier." Danny said.

"Okay, see you in a bit." Sam said before ending the call. She then began watching as Danny put away his phone and began doing some ludicrously dangerous moves to go down. He was literally jumping down a floor at a time. Sometimes even using just one hand to hold onto a ledge, until finally dropping to the ground.

Sam had already moved towards the building he was just on and met him moments after he landed. And she almost immediately punched him on the shoulder when they met.

"Aw, hey what was that for?" Danny moaned.

"Have you any idea how dangerous that just was! Those walls could've been unstable and collapsed when you landed on them!" Sam ranted.

Danny just smiled and put his hand on Sam's shoulder. "No worries Sam, I've been doing this for long enough to know the risks. I'm fine." He comforted.

"Yeah, but still… something could go wrong." Sam said.

"Yup, many times it has. It's part of the thing Sam. Though it isn't as unsafe as it looks." Danny said.

"I'll say…" Sam responded.

"So? How about you? What's going on with that thing with your mom?" Danny asked as he leaned to the wall.

"It's just that my mom doesn't understand who I am! She always tries to make me this prissy little girl that fits perfectly into her expectations!" Sam ranted.

"Ah, and what do we say to the god of death…?" Danny said with a smirk.

"Not today!" Sam laughed back. "Really, I would never have been a goth if she were the god of death though."

"Understandable, no offence but that woman gives me the creeps. And I didn't even properly meet her." Danny said.

"Keep it that way Danny, its better that way." Sam smirked.

"I mean, she can be nice perhaps?" Danny questioned with a careful tone.

"Heh, try saying that again when she tries to file a restraining order on you." Sam said.

Danny looked at her incredulously. "She wouldn't…"

"Don't bet on it sir Fenton. She will if you don't fit in her prissy picture." Sam mocked.

Danny smirked and adopted an even heavier accent than he already had. "Why really miss Manson? Then I guess I ought to watch mine steps." He mocked.

Sam tried to keep from laughing at Danny's antics but ultimately failed. She burst into laughter which Danny might or might not think sounded really nice as he laughed along.

"Haha, okay. That accent is really amazing." She said in-between giggles.

"Just be thankful it isn't my normal accent. I've known people who have it way worse than me." Danny said with a normal voice again.

"Hehe, that actually brightened my day up a bit. Thanks." Sam said sincerely.

"Glad to be of service. Might I ask, why come to this place?" Danny asked.

"It's one of my favourites." Sam said as she turned around to look at the little forest. "Out here it is quiet and you have some great examples of nature reclaiming the remains of man."

"Ah, and you just like to look at them?" Danny asked.

"No, I try and draw the scenery in front of me from time to time." Sam explained. "I'm not that good though." She said timidly.

"I'm sure you're great." Danny said before getting an idea. "You know, I know a perfect spot for you."

Sam turned back to Danny. "Really, where?" She asked.

"I'll guide you there. But it won't be easy." Danny said before pointing upwards, making Sam understand what he was getting at.

"What?! No way, I can't get up there." Sam said.

"Come on, you'll be fine. This isn't a hard one, most of the staircases are still in place." Danny said.

"The key word here is 'most'. I'm not even clothed right for this." Sam said.

"Clothed right? There's no need for special equipment. And I'll say you look good for it." Danny said which was true in a way. Today Sam had opted for a black tank top, a purple skirt with square lining and her trusty combat boots with some high black socks.

"Uh… thanks" Sam said hiding a small blush. She wasn't used to getting many compliments on her looks. "But you have gloves on." She said as she pointed to his hands. "And quite sturdy ones so to speak."

Danny looked down at his gloves and smirked. "Ow, yeah. These are quite handy when you do the stuff I do most of the time."

"Where did you even get these? Is that metal padding on the palms?" Sam asked.

Danny held up his palm. "Yup, found them in a specialised shop in London. Plus some tinkering of my own." He smirked.

"You and your tinkering." Sam laughed.

"Wait, I have an extra pair in my backpack." Danny said as he took of his pack and fished out a pair of almost identical gloves. "Here, try them on."

Sam took the gloves with gratitude and tried them on. Ignoring the fact that they were maybe a little too big they fit her perfectly. Even accenting her style. "Hmm, they're really nice." She hummed.

"They suit you. Now, shall we?" Danny asked as he gestured to the building.

Sam seemed in thought for a moment before nodding. "Okay, let's go!" She said.

"Alright! Follow me!" Danny said before jumping past Sam and grabbing onto a nearby ledge, pulling himself up.

"Uh…, I'm not trying that." Sam said as she watched her friend scaled the wall.

Danny laughed. "There's still some bits of the stairs left on the inside."

"I'll go that way then." Sam said.

"I'll wait for you on the inside." Danny said before vanishing through a hole in the wall.

'He's hiding something.' Sam thought. 'It's doesn't make any sense for him to be able to do all this stuff if he's just a normal guy.'

Sam found her way into the abandoned factory and just as Danny said there were some remains of a flight of stairs nearby for her to use. To be honest the whole thing appealed to her adventurous side so she started walking up the stairs until she found herself blocked when there was a literal hole in the floor.

"Well then." Sam mused as she searched for a way around. The only option though was jumping over it.

"Need some help?" Danny asked as he walked over from the other side of the jump.

"No, I'm an independent girl. I can do this myself." Sam shot back with maybe a little too much force.

"By all means." Danny said while throwing his hands up. "Just try not to fall. It's a nasty drop."

Sam took a few steps back to take a running start. Ran up, and cleared the distance easily.

"See, told you I didn't need help." Sam said proudly.

"I never said that!" Danny said.

"Well, you were implying it." Sam pointed out.

"Well, maybe I did." Danny said. "Come on, we still have some ways to go." He remarked before moving off to make his way to the roof. Sam quickly followed after him.

"Do you do this often?" Sam asked as she leapt up the stairs.

"Every once in a while. It helps clear my head." Danny answered.

"Huh, okay. Did you do this back in England as well?" Sam asked.

Danny stopped for a moment and turned around. "Well… obviously." He joked.

"I'm serious." Sam said as she jumped up a ledge.

Danny signed. "Yes, yes I did. It's a hobby of sorts." He half lied.

"Oh, that actually kinda cool." Sam said as they now reached what was left of the roof of the building and Danny led her to the spot he was in about 15 minutes prior. They sat there for a few minutes in silence after Danny showed her the view.

"Sam?" Danny asked.

"Yes Danny?" She said.

"I was wondering, why did you take us to your house yesterday? Tucker said he had never been there before. And you guys have been friends for years?" Danny said.

Sam clammed up for a second. "Well…uh. I guess I just thought it would be a good moment to show you guys." She said.

Danny looked sceptical. "I'm not sure I believe that."

Sam grumbled. "Well, it's the truth though." She lied.

"Now really?" Danny asked, still sceptical.

"You're being awfully nosy." Sam bit back.

"Call me curious, Sam." Danny answered.

Sam huffed. "Fine, I did it so we wouldn't lose you." She admitted.

"Lose me…?" Danny asked. "I'm sorry… you've lost me…"

She signed and leaned against a piece of leftover wall at the edge of the roof. "What I mean is that we don't want to have you drop us the moment you meet the rest of our age. And with that we mean the A-list mostly." She said with maybe more venom than necessary.

"The A-list? I've heard that name mentioned several times now." Danny said. "You know you can tell me these things right?"

"The A-list is what we call the populars at Casper High and in Amity by extension. The great majority of them is completely self-obsessed and tyrannical towards people THEY deem of lesser standing." Sam explained.

"This includes you and Tucker I suppose." Danny deduced. "That's why Tucker made that popularity comment when he saw your house."

"Indeed, but I think you're shallow if you gain popularity that way. Not to mention that you so called 'friends' would drop you the instant you lose your money." Sam continued.

"Like Valerie…" Danny said.

"Quite, and that's why I wanted to try and prevent that from happening to you." Sam said.

"Wait, you really believed that I would just go and stop being your friend the moment I met those guys?" Danny asked slightly hurt.

"Well…, I mean you would draw their attention. Sam said, suddenly less sure of herself. 'I mean you're cute and all… WAIT! Stop that… bad Manson.' She scolded herself mentally.

"Draw their attention…?" Danny asked, completely unaware of the double meaning.

Sam thought quickly. "Well… uh… I mean you're exotic and all…" She rambled.

"Exotic?" He asked raising a confused eyebrow.

"You're a foreigner, a European. I mean we don't have many of those. Most being exchange students." Sam said. Complementing herself mentally for steering around the subject and hoping he hadn't noticed.

"Huh, that does make sense." Danny pondered, completely clueless of Sam's double meaning. "Thanks for telling me."

"You're welcome Danny. You know, that thing you said about being able to tell you things? That's the same for you, you know. You can tell us anything too." Sam said.

Danny gave a weak chuckle. "Yeah, sure. I'll remember that." He said. 'Even though there are things I can't tell you guys…' He added mentally.

 **Amity Park watertower, evening**

Night was falling again over the small city in Michigan, restaurant owners were closing up and Amity's night life began gaining speed again. But due to this everyone focused more on their companions, their drinks or the road they were walking or riding on. So no-one looked up.

Valerie or the Red Huntress was doing her patrol again and inspired by her newest associate if you call them that, she tried to go stealthily this time. Which meant no jet-sled, just running over rooftops. And it was so much harder than he made it look.

"Ugh, dammit." She cursed as she made another long jump and almost missed the ledge. "Why do those alleys have to be so wide? I can hardly cross them."

She made her way further to the outskirts of Amity, where she thought she had the best chance to find him. Sneaky asshole tended to keep to the shadows a lot. As she reached a high point Valerie used this chance to observe her surroundings carefully. No way he was just coming to her again, and maybe it was also a bit of a pride issue. She would not be outdone, not even by him.

As she watched she observed a shadow move atop the Amity Park watertower, and two neon green eyes looking right at her seconds later.

"There he is." Valerie said proudly to herself. She made her way to the base of the tower as quick and quiet as possible, lest she'd be spotted and draw attention to her. And attention would spook him off.

As she reached the top of the tower she saw him sitting casually in the centre, right on top of the water reservoir tank, staring at her. She stepped off the ladder and walked up to his sitting form.

"Well, you were certainly easier to find this time around." Valerie said.

"Hmm, I do wonder why?" Phantom said oh so sarcastically.

"Aren't you hilarious…" Valerie deadpanned. "But knowing you, or at least having observed your behaviour there must be something you want. Because you wouldn't show up otherwise."

The Phantom said nothing but shook his head and started chuckling.

"What's so funny?" Valerie asked.

"Nothing. You just remind me of someone I know. Completely obsessed with psychological analysis." Phantom said.

"Someone you know?" Valerie asked.

"Don't try Red." Phantom said, standing up. "I'm not giving you information on my private life. You're not figuring me out just yet."

"What give you that idea?" Valerie asked slightly offended.

"Because you're going to try after I tell you that I know." Phantom said. "After all in your case the clues were there, miss Gray."

Valerie froze instantly, it couldn't be possible right? No-one had figured her out, yet this guy does it in only a few weeks. "W…what?" She managed to stutter out.

It took a few moments for Valerie to regain her composure and retaliate. "How do you know that?! Have you been spying on me!? You freak!"

Phantom signed, to be honest he could have expected this. "Calm down, no I'm not spying on you." He said holding up his hands.

"Like hell you are! How else would you figure out my best kept secret?!" Valerie raged.

"Because you told me." Phantom simply said shutting Valerie up.

"Wait…what? I never told you anything!" Valerie shot back.

"Correct, you didn't tell me about you. You told me about your father…" Phantom said. "Finding his story in the papers wasn't so hard. And seeing that he only has one daughter who fits the description I believe the answer is given. Your reaction proved as much."

Valerie thought for a moment, he had her cornered with his logic. "But how? No one else in Amity has been able to figure it out?" She said as she walked over to the railing to the watertower, making emphasis on the city. "But you're here for a week or so, maybe longer. I don't know. And yet you can figure it out."

"Maybe because I'm not an ignorant dimwit?" Phantom replied sarcastically.

"Hey, rude!" Valerie shot back.

"Well, you have to admit that the city might be a little clueless if they can't see the links. Especially since you raged so much before." Phantom said.

Valerie chuckled a little. "I guess, but not all of them are complete idiots." She said thinking of two specific people. "And come on, did I rage that hard?"

"Well, I only saw you do it once. Excluding that time on the roof." He added.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry about that." Valerie offered.

"Don't mention it. You do know why I told you this right?" Phantom asked as he joined her at the railing.

"To show me I can trust you with that information?" Valerie asked.

"Yes, just as I trust you not to reveal my presence to the public yet." Phantom added.

"So we're trusting each other with secret. All while we both know next to nothing about each other." Valerie quipped. "That's a recipe for disaster in my opinion."

"Another reason for me to come here tonight." He said.

"Then what was the first reason to come?" Valerie asked as she turned around and leaned against the railing with her back.

"I was wondering if you were up for a training session." Phantom asked.

"Wait, you actually want to train with me?" Valerie asked.

"Yes, if we're going to work together that is." He said detaching himself from the railing and moving to the middle of the tower. "After you have your questions answered of course."

Valerie dubiously followed him. "Are you being serious?" She asked not convinced.

"Absolutely." He said seating himself on the cold metal ground and made a sign for her to sit with him. Doing his best impression of an old martial arts master would act. "Please."

Valerie followed his example and seated directly in front of him. "So I can ask you anything?"

"Anything within reason. I want you to understand the philosophy behind our cause." Phantom said.

"Philosophy? Alright mister, now you're just pulling my leg." Valerie said.

Phantom chuckled. "Well, I might be a little overdramatic. But the idea still stands."

"Alright." Valerie said chuckling. "So anything goes?"

"Ask away." Phantom answered.

"So…, why do you do this? You know my motivation, which has now been debunked, but what's yours?" Valerie asked.

Phantom chuckled. "Well, it may have something to do with the family. We've been in the business for several generations." He said.

Valerie hummed. "Oh, that makes sense…. Wait a minute! Generations?! But ghost hunting is a thing from the past few years maybe the last 2 two decades." She said.

"Correction." Phantom said holding up a finger. "It has been a PUBLIC thing for the past 20 years. Well, it has been recognised as ghost hunting since then. But we…" He said gesturing to the both of them. "…have been around for a much longer time."

"You mean ghost hunters? What makes you say that?" Valerie asked.

"It wasn't always called ghost hunting, but it's no secret. I'm sure you've heard about it in school." Phantom said. "In past times we were known as the witch hunters and in other cases… the Inquisition."

"Wait, you mean back in the day…" Valerie began.

"The witch hunts, the atrocities done by the Inquisition in the name of faith. That is partially our legacy, just be grateful the general public doesn't know. Otherwise we wouldn't have such a good reputation." Phantom finished.

"Damn, that's awful. But we don't have that good of a reputation. I mean half the time we're seen as vigilantes." Valerie said.

"True, but the facts remain. We might have gotten fancier weapons and tech and mostly teared ourselves away from the church but we're still descendant from those organisations." Phantom said.

"But our ancestors' actions don't define ours." Valerie finished.

"Words to live by miss Gray, words to live by." Phantom said.

"Hey, call me Valerie. Might as well know my real name while we're at it." Valerie said.

"I will, except when there's people watching of course." Phantom answered.

"Yes please. Could I maybe know your name?" Valerie tried.

Phantom chuckled. "Nice try Red, but that's a question I don't wish to answer." He said.

"But you know mine, it's only fair!" Valerie protested.

"That may be, but I have more to protect than only my name. I know secrets that at current time's better stay hidden." Phantom said.

"Well, that's not a nice definition of trust." Valerie bit back.

"In time, you'll know." Phantom answered.

"I guess that should be good enough." Valerie said with distain. Then she got an idea. "Care to answer questions while sparring?" She asked.

Phantom got up from his sitting position and stared at her. "You just want to hit me with something don't you?"

"Maybe…" Valerie said.

Phantom chuckled. "Very well, let's see what you've got." He said as he took his quarterstaff from his belt and threw it at Valerie.

"Wait… this is your weapon." Valerie said confused after she caught it.

"Yes, a most astute observation. I want to see how you handle it. Press the button in the centre to extend it." He said pointing at the weapon.

Valerie did as she was told, the staff sprung out of the housing and the electrodes at both ends ignited with a crackle. She spun the weapon around experimentally before turning towards him again. "What about you?" She asked.

Phantom answered that question by walking to the railing and yanking a piece of pipe of it. Using it like a sword. "En garde Red. Let's do this." He said.

Though he couldn't see it Valerie smiled underneath her mask. And she surely wasn't going to hold back, she might trust him slightly with the information regarding her identity but that didn't mean she wasn't going to enjoy hitting him.

Valerie spun the staff around and brought it down on her opponent, who just like her gave didn't hold back in the fight. It was going to be a long evening.

 **You know, I'm not even going to say it. I'm not making comment over how long it took. I know it isn't the best of chapters but I wanted some exposition and character development done, because that's something the characters in the original show sadly got way too little of. And yes I'm focusing on Valerie for the moment, the other character will get their turn as well.**

 **Reviews:**

 **Messedupmoon: It will happen soon enough.**

 **Kimera20: You're absolutely right, as I said before character development is very rare in the series. Though I have seen multiple examples of people giving them more depth, I'm just trying my best to do so too.**

 **Critique: Right, were do I start. First of all I was extremely happy with your review. Your constructive criticism is really helping me forward and I'll be using it as a guideline from here on. Not sure if I can do it but I'll try. As for your idea, I'll definitely use it on a later date. At this point I can barely remember what I was going to do with that plot point in the first place. Thank you so much.**

 **Thanks for reading and as always constructive criticism is highly appreciated. Just open the review tab and smash your head against your keyboard, I'll interpret it! Anyways, till next time… whenever that may be…**


	8. Chapter 8: Return

**Chapter 8: Return**

 **Downtown Amity-Park, somewhere late morning**

It was somewhere halfway the summer vacation, the 27th of July to be exact. Danny and Valerie or Phantom and Red Huntress had been working together for a couple of weeks now. A team-up which came with great success, ghosts were caught and against all odds they managed to avoid the authorities and the press. Which resulted in Phantom's presence still being hidden to the world. But that wasn't the only thing going on.

Over the past few weeks Danny managed to integrate Valerie into their little group of friends. There was some friction in the beginning and a couple of arguments… okay a lot of arguments. Both Sam and Valerie are really stubborn, prone to giving Danny headaches. Tucker just rolled with it so it seemed. He was likely more used to it since he and Sam still had their almost daily meat vs veggie argument. But in the end there was some, though reluctant, bonding between the group. And for once Tucker and Sam got to see Valerie truly grateful for having some new friends.

Today was a very typical summer's day, no clouds in the sky and a pleasant morning sun. This caused many people to be out on the streets. Most were going shopping now it wasn't too hot outside yet. All in all a pretty nice and normal day. Of course the ghosts didn't get the memo…

It began like most attacks begin… with a single scream. Not long after the most popular commercial street excluding the Amity-Park mall was in chaos as a giant green glowing robot tore through the streets laughing maniacally.

"HAHAHA! RUN YOU PUNY HUMANS! I TECHNUS, MASTER OF TECHNOLOGY AND EVERYTHING MECHANICAL SHALL TAKE THIS WORLD AND MAKE IT MY OWN!" The robot or Technus as he was now know monologue over his rampage. He had used many different pieces of technology and a few cars to make up his hulking death robot. A humanoid design with two arms and legs which possessed only three appendages. He compensated for this by literally being able to smash a car with a single fist.

Most of the population was running but against common sense stooped after a while and turned around to watch. Not really the most sensible thing to do, and to make it even worse the press had actually sent a reporter and camera crew to the site. Like if it wasn't already dangerous enough.

"I HEREBY CLAIM THIS CITY AND ALL OF YOU PUNY HUMANS! THIS WILL BE THE BEGINNING OF MY WORLD DOMINIO_UAARCH!" Technus screamed out as he was hit in the chest by a missile. The crowd quickly turned to see where it came from only to see a gleaming silver jet-sled fly over. It was the Red Huntress.

"Not on my watch you mechanical piece of ectoplasm!" She shouted from above before firing several shots from her gun. The purple blasts carving into the robot's hull and sometimes doing some damage.

Technus in response swiped his mechanical fist at her like a human would swipe at an annoying fly. "GET LOST YOU INSOLENT GIRL! I TECHNUS? MASTER OF TECHNOLOGY WILL NOT BE STOPPED BY ANYONE!" He ranted.

"As I said!" Valerie said as she took aim for the head. "Not on my watch!"

Doing so however needed her to stop moving as fast as she was in order to take better aim. Technus exploited this and swiped at her again. Hitting her jet-sled making it spin out of control and sending her to the pavement below.

"SHIIIIT! –SMASH– …Ow, fuck that hurts." She swore as she hit the ground. She had no time to rest however as Technus' fist was approaching again, and fast. She rolled sideways making the giant fist miss her just barely. It only made a sizable dent in the ground. This however put her in the perfect firing line of Technus' mech's head. It took her less than a second to raise her weapon again and deliver a shot straight to the face, searing off part of the right side and destroying one of the eyes.

"GRAAAH! Technus roared as her reared back grabbing his mech's face with his hand. Valerie used this chance to quickly get up and put some distance between her and the deranged tech-controlling ghost.

Technus removed his huge hand from his metal head, indeed the right side of the mech's head was seared away and the electronics underneath were visible and glowing green. However the damage was only temporary as Technus was already working on repairing the scorched patch.

"Shit, that doesn't work." Valerie swore under her breath. She looked around, finding that her jet-sled had crashed on the other side of the road. The only problem was that the mech was inbetween her and her vehicle.

"YOU SHALL PAY FOR THAT DEARLY GIRL!"

"Screw you!" Valerie shouted back firing another two shots. Technus in response produced two spire like constructs from both his forearms. It didn't take long before both spires began crackling with green electric energy. They were weapons.

"Fffuuuuck!" Valerie screamed as she dashed through the mech's legs as two bright green energy beams arched out of the spire coils and crossed the spot where she had been standing, and the building behind it. Carving it into three pieces.

Valerie looked back to the destruction, then to the watching crowd. "ARE YOU PEOPLE OUT OF YOUR MIND?! GET OUT OF HERE!" She shouted. Unfortunately only a few heeded her command, with no time to worry about the populace she instead turned to the thing that actually threatened her life here.

Technus meanwhile had turned around and was charging his devastating energy lance thing again. Doing the only thing she could thing of she called her jet-sled to her, narrowly avoided the weapon and streaked narrowly passed the mech's face. But she did leave a small present behind in Technus' neck when she did, namely a smell grenade.

The bomb went off just as predicted and scorched another part of Technus' face, this time the lower left side and shoulder. She rocketed around and landed back on the ground a little ways away in order not to be swatted again. Technus had turned to where she was and furiously glared at her out of his now heavily scarred robot face. He readied his weapon for the third time but this time Valerie had no intention to move. For when she arched around on her jet-sled she had seen something that would surely tip the scale of this battle in her favour.

"I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS! NOW YOU DIE GIRL, FOR I TECHNUS MASTER OF TECHNOLOGY AM SICK OF YOUR GAMES!" The ghost screeched as he ignited his beam again and aimed it closer and closer to Valerie.

"WHAM!" A heavy discharge of a weapon was heard over the area and the shoulder joint holding the right arm of Technus's mech exploded as a bright green ball of plasma hit it dead centre. The arm was blown off and the mech toppled backwards on the ground with a thundering crash.

The nearby camera crew turned to the origin point of the blast but only caught a black blur jumping off the nearby roof. They only got a stable image when the figure had already landed on the street below close to the Red Huntress. It however didn't take them long to realise who they had before them, the black trench coat, metal armour and of course glowing green eyes were a dead giveaway. The producers in the studios just screamed in their reporters' ears while they were paralysed with realisation as the black shape of one of the most notorious ghost hunters of the world rose from the crouch in which he landed.

"What took you so long?" Red Huntress shouted to him.

"Stuck in traffic." Phantom replied with his signature deep voice. Confirming to all onlookers it was him. "Now, what're we dealing with?" He asked.

"Calls himself Technus, seems to have possessed technology to make a giant mech suit." Valerie said while Technus tried to get back up again. Struggling with only a single arm.

"Technokinesis, heard of that before." Phantom said.

"So how do we take it down." Valerie asked.

"We need to get the ghost out of the machine." Phantom said as Technus finally got a foot and a knee back on solid ground.

"How!" Valerie asked getting antsy. She had no desire to be crushed.

"We take it apart. Scrap it until nothing is left!" Phantom said before surging forward. "Attack from all directions!" He ordered as he shot another blast out of his rifle and ducked through Technus' legs.

Valerie did as she was told and soon enough both of them were ducking under Technus's arms and legs whilst taking shots, searing off more and more bits as they went. But it was an agonisingly slow process and they wouldn't be able to keep this up forever. Technus was, with exception of the blown off arm, regenerating just as fast as they were damaging him. And even then he was still trying to reattach the lost limb.

"This isn't working! Phantom, we need a new plan!" Valerie shouted over the fight.

Valerie was right. They couldn't keep up. 'Come on Fenton, think!' He thought. Then he noticed something. Amongst the damage he and Valerie had inflicted there were several circuit boards exposed and sparking. Added to that the mech had something that resembled a mouth. If he could get it to open long enough to drop in a… yes, that could work.

"Red! I got an idea!" Phantom shouted in-between shots. He then unhooked his collapsed quarterstaff from his belt and threw it towards Valerie. "Catch!"

Valerie expertly catches the weapon and by instinct activated it from all the times she was allowed to train with it. "What do I do?!" She shouted.

"Stab him! The exposed circuits! Make him scream!" Phantom shouted as he tucked away his rifle and grabbed a small object from his belt. Valerie didn't need much imagination to what that little thing was.

Valerie did as she was told and surged forward to get the staff in range. Phantom meanwhile worked to distract Technus by making as much noise as possible and darting through his attacks. This proved effective enough for Valerie to get close and find one of the spots the was instructed to hit. Without hesitation she stabbed the electrified point of the staff inside and Technus roared in pain.

For Phantom this was his cue. He darted under Technus' legs passing Valerie and then used his jump jets to rocket upwards and start climbing the mech's back. Valerie kept up her attacks drawing Technus's attention while Phantom scuttled even higher up like a very annoying insect, occasionally doing some damage himself when he found a weak spot. After an antagonizing long minute he finally reached the shoulders and found something interesting.

"Hey, this looks important." He said before yanking out a thick cable just behind the head. The result was instant as Technus' eyes seemingly shut off. "Welp, that's handy." Valerie the stabbed the mech another time causing Technus to scream out, exactly what Phantom wanted. He grabbed onto the upper jaw, forcing the mouth to remain open, pushed a little button on the orb he was holding and threw it resolutely down Technus' throat. "Bon appetite!"

Phantom activated his jump pack and got off Technus' shoulders as fast as he could. "GET BACK!" He shouted to Valerie as he landed on the ground. Valerie heeded the command and jumped back, putting as much distance between her and the mech as she could.

"RAAAGH! YOU PUNY HUMA-" Technus roared before he was suddenly interrupted by an energy surge located inside his chest interrupted him. The chest violently expanded forward with a sonic noise before quickly crunching back inwards again. There was a flash, and Technus blew apart in a bright green explosion. The torso was severed from the legs and bits came raining down. The mech was destroyed and Technus' influence was gone, causing all parts to revert back to their original state. Although they were completely ruined.

The head landed not too far from where Phantom was standing, green tendril began to seep out of the broken eyes and mouth slowly materialising in a floating green blob. The blob got more form and morphed into the image of a green old man with long, spiky, white hair and sunglasses. It wore a grey lab coat for some reason and looked like your stereotypical mad scientist.

"YOU WILL PAY FOR THA-" Technus began but never got to finish when he was shot in the chest by an electrical charge. He tumbled down to the ground and got very little time to get his bearings.

"YAAAH!" Valerie screamed as she swung Phantom's quarterstaff like an electrified baseball-bat to Technus' face. –SMACK– Technus flew backwards completely dazed by the double jolt of electricity and collapsed on the floor, when he looked up he had just enough time to see the dark opening of a thermos before the blue light emerged.

"You won't like to hear it, but you're outdated." Phantom said as he sucked the tech-ghost inside and capped the containment device. "Hell yeah." He said to himself as he tucked the thermos away and afterwards caught his quarterstaff which Valerie had thrown back at him. He tucked it away in his belt before clapping his hand in Valerie's, who had meanwhile walked up to him.

"That was awesome!" Valerie congratulated. "What was that?"

"Implosion grenade. Personal favourite." Phantom said as they released their adrenaline filled handshake. He then put a hand on her shoulder. "You did good today. I knew you could do it."

Unconsciously Valerie turned her head to make sure he couldn't see her face, even though they were both wearing masks. "Uh, thanks…" She replied shyly.

Phantom nodded while giving the nearby remains of Technus' head a good kick. With the destructive tech ghost now captured all the pieces of the suit he created had fallen apart in their original pieces. Albeit broken there were car parts, monitors, smartphones, a toaster, radio-antennas and so on. "This thing isn't standing up anytime soon."

"I think that's a good thing." Valerie said as she looked to the side of the building she was in front of just before Phantom arrived. He followed her gaze and cringed audibly.

"Ouch, that's got to hurt. Hopefully those folks have insurance." He said.

Valerie hummed her agreement before she spotted the watching masses out of the corner of her eye. And that unfortunately included the press. "Looks like your secret is out." She said.

Phantom looked straight at her with a head-movement that just screamed sarcasm. His next words were as expected, in line with that assumption. "No shit Sherlock…"

Meanwhile the various reporter began coming to their senses, mostly due to their studio editors screaming in their earphones to get out there and snag a word with the hunters. Preferably the male one. One of them was Lance Thunder from Amity Park News.

"Lance! Lance get your feet moving! He's right there, get on with it!" Was shouted through his ear piece. Tiffany Snow was her name, she was the news anchor in the studio and he was supposed to be a weatherman. Well tough luck for Lance Thunder though since he was always send out into the field.

"Right right Tiffany, I'm on my way." He said in his little microphone before signalling his cameraman and getting on with the show. "Good morning Amity-Park, I'm Lance Thunder and we're here on market street live. Moments ago a fight between a ghost-possessed robot and Amity's local ghost-huntress ended with a literal bang. But the most extraordinary thing was that our local huntress got some help." He said as she camera panned, giving an image of the devastation on the street and a clear view of the two ghost-hunters. "That's right folks, your eyes aren't deceiving you. That right there is the ever elusive ghost-hunter know by many as Phantom. Over a month ago he disappeared from his usual hunting grounds of London, UK. And now he turns up here and seems to have made a friend. Let's get closer and ask the man himself." Lance said before running in front of his camera crew and towards the two hunters.

"They're coming." Valerie said.

"I can see that. I'd rather not get mobbed by the paparazzi." Phantom mentioned as his body language became mora and more on edge.

"We should split up. Lose them separately." Valerie proposed.

"Good thinking. We rendezvous at the tower." Phantom said before turning around and looking for an exit.

"Gotcha, see you there." Valerie said as she tapped her wristpad and her jet-sled came flying in. It snagged her away in the blink of an eye and within seconds she was gone. Flying away in a random direction. Phantom meanwhile took up running straight at a wall and used his jump jets to scale it. As expected the reporters seemed to focus on him and they got treated to a few seconds of footage of Phantom scaling a building and disappearing over the ledge.

"Dammit." Lance said before gabbing his mini-microphone. "We can't see him, he want on the roof."

"This is News Chopper 2, we're in pursuit." Was called over the radio as a white helicopter with the blue news logo flew over. They quickly replaced the live-feed with the targeted hunter back on screen.

"Damn, these guys don't give up do they." Danny grumbled as he glance over his shoulder. "Welp, time to disappear then." He jumped down one level and landed on a rooftop balcony that, luckily, was abandoned. The wall would hide him from the prying eyes of the camera for a few seconds, he used this precious time to activate his cloaking engine. "Try and find me now ya gits." He taunted to no-one in particular as he vanished into nothingness.

The helicopter flew over and the camera panned towards the place they'd last seen him. Only to find nothing. They knew he hadn't left the roof. Or so they thought.

"He's gone, where the hell did he go?!" The helicopter crew said astonished. The studio crew said some things back over the radio in a panic, they thought they had the scoop of the year right in their hands.

Meanwhile in a nearby alley an invisible man looked back to the confused helicopter. "Better luck next time twats."

 **Half an hour later**

Valerie used the shadows to creep closer to the base of the infamous water-tower she and her mysterious friend had met on. In doing so she hoped to avoid the leeches that were the press. That news helicopter had been circling back and forth for a while now, they were likely searching for him. Oh she could see the headlines already.

"Breaking news, legendary ghost-hunter returns!" She mocked. "But running away when a fight is happening, nooo…" She said sarcastically.

Out of the shadows sounded a heavy chuckling. "Hehehe, sarcasm. That's usually my quirk Huntress."

Valerie turned around towards the source of the sound although she knew she likely wouldn't see anything. She already knew who it was though, she had spent enough time with him already. Just as she expected when she turned around the spot in the shadow under the tower was empty, except maybe a slight visual distortion you only saw when you knew it was there. Like looking through a glass of water.

"I know you're there." She said as she crossed her arms.

Phantom chuckled again. "You only knew because I talked." He said while decloaking.

"You just need to know where to look." She shot back.

"And you'd need to know I'm even around." He said. "Which ironically the entire world knows now."

Valerie shook her head. "You could've expected that to be honest. I mean, you can stay hidden for only so long. Someone was bound to see you eventually." She said.

"Quite so. However I would rather have seen them run to safety rather than standing right in the open. Exposing themselves to danger. I mean our job is difficult and dangerous enough."

"Yup, and by tomorrow your head is going to be on every major newspaper and news site on the planet." Valerie threw in as she leaned against a nearby pole. The tension of the morning had largely vanished and she knew they weren't watched. Otherwise he wouldn't be so calm and talkative, since the media gave him the reputation of being a silent hard-ass. The truth being that he was rather sassy when you waited long enough, sadly for her he also was really secretive.

"So, on another note… what are you going to do with that ghost from this morning? Assuming you still have it?" She asked pointedly.

Phantom cocked his head at her, imitating a dog that didn't understand what his master said. Hidden under the gesture of course was a knowing smile. "Why are you asking? I though until not too long ago you wanted to rip every ghost you saw to shreds, change of heart Huntress?" He pointed out, his smirk bleeding into the tone of his voice.

"Cut the sass you ass." Valerie shot back. "I want to know what you're doing with it. And I want to be certain I don't have to catch it again later today because you let it escape."

"Escape?! Are you questioning my methods Huntress?" Phantom asked as he crossed his arms. His methods may be unorthodox but they worked so far. And as the saying goes, when something works don't change it.

"Your methods? No… your motives however are still a mystery to me. You know my reasons to do this but still you steadfast refuse to give me anything to work with. All things considered you're just a man in a mask that sometimes works with me, and that's just it. You're nothing but a mask." Valerie said with an agitated tone. "For god's sake we almost died back there and yet you're keeping yourself closed off."

'So that's it. She doesn't trust me…' He thought. "The ghost will be kept safe. I'll take some samples and do some scans then return it to the Ghost-zone where it belongs." He said curtly.

"The Ghost-zone." Valerie spat. "So what, how are you going to do that."

"That is information on a need to know basis only." Phantom said.

"Ugh, need to know basis… Well I need to know dammit." Valerie said angrily. "I've been kept in the dark enough. You seem like a smart guy but a partnership is based on mutual trust, or didn't you know that?"

Phantom growled behind his mask. "You don't know… you don't know what's at stake." He said between his teeth. "We live in a dangerous world with an even more dangerous life. The lesser you know the safer you'll be."

Valerie harrumphed at the thought. "Safer?! Are you actually implying I can't defend myself!?" She angrily asked. She was about to continue her rant but was interrupted by him firmly grabbing her shoulders and holding her in place. Feeling the pressure of his mechanically enhanced strength through her suit.

"Listen to me…" Phantom began in an angry tone. "I do this because I have more to protect than myself alone. I've made enemies throughout the years and they won't hesitate to go through you to get to me. Trust me when I say that I do this to protect them and you!"

"I can defend myself!" Valerie shot back.

"I don't doubt that." Phantom growled. "But I don't want you to be exposed to unnecessary risks."

Valerie wretched herself loose from his grip. "Fine, but that doesn't help the trust issue." She spat.

"I know…" He growled back before he reached in one of the pockets strapped to his belt. "That's why I'm giving you this." He said as he held out a grey-red earpiece out to the Huntress.

"What is this?" She asked as she carefully took the fragile looking piece of technology out of his hand.

"It's a communicator, linked directly to me. For if you would ever need me." Phantom explained. "But don't try and track me through it, it's encrypted communications and I'll know when someone tries to tamper with it."

Valerie turned the earpiece around a few times to take in all the details and then lifted her mask slightly to place it in her ear. "Well, it's not exactly trust you're exuding right now. But it' a start." She said. Meanwhile Phantom began walking away.

"Will you ever trust me enough to know your name?" Valerie called after him.

"No today." He answered. "Now have a good day Huntress, I believe we both have other things than ghost-hunting to do." He said over his shoulder. "Until next time." He waved off before disappearing once again.

Staring ahead Valerie signed at her so called partner's behaviour. Hopefully she'll eventually be able to break down his mistrust of other people. "Well, so much for that idea…" She said as she tapped the side of her head where the radio was located.

"I heard that…" Suddenly came through her ear. Seems like the channel was still open.

"Huh, at least I know it works…" She said back, hoping to get an answer and start another conversation. But the line remained silent. 'Well, better luck next time.' She thought.

 **Several hours later, early afternoon**

Both Valerie and Danny returned to their respective homes after their fight with Technus, when she got home Valerie took great care to hide her suit and weapons for when her dad would come home. Then after that she took a refreshing shower to wash off all the sweat she produced during the fight. Meanwhile Danny was doing largely the same thing, well… except one slight detail perhaps.

First he took the thermos containing Technus to the lab for some brief analysis, as they had been doing with every new ghost he caught. The tests were as non-invasive as they could make them as to not provoke the ghost even more. A simple scan of the being in the thermos coupled with an ability analysis would suffice for now. After Danny was finished with the tests he saved all the data he collected from the fight and analysis and forwarded the whole packet to his parents. They would find it when they came home from their business trip. They were briefly out of town today because of something related to Fentonworks. No doubt he'll hear about it at dinner later tonight.

With that he took the thermos out of the socket it was sitting in and went to the portal-room, here he used a special flush system to jettison the contents of the thermos back into the Ghost-Zone. With a scream Technus was sucked back into the green swirling void while Danny watched with a ghost of a smile.

"AAAH? I'LL GET YOU For this humannn!" Technus screamed before the doors to the portal closed shut again.

"Now, that has been dealt with." Danny laughed to himself. "Now let's get out of this armour and take a shower." He said while climbing the stairs out of the lab. On the way up to his room he passed by his sister's, deciding to be as silent as he could possibly be since she was working on her thesis again. He stocked away his armour in the wall compartment, after that he figuratively dove into the shower.

 **About an hour later**

"Fuck, Fuck, Fuck." Danny swore as he rushed through downtown Amity-Park. With his elongated shower, having lunch, maybe obsessively cleaning his weapons and looking over the notes of his project he had completely lost track of time. And he had completely forgotten he was supposed to meet with Sam, Tucker and Valerie today. So now he was running late and that's not something he wanted to be. So now he was rushing through the streets as fast as he could, without hitting things of course. It didn't take him long before he reached the Nasty Burger parking lot where they'd chose to meet. Much to his surprise however only Tucker and Sam were there already.

On second though however it wasn't that surprising that Valerie wasn't there yet. Since she was with him all morning, not that she knew it was him however. He slowed down enough not to hit the curb of the road and smash face first into the concrete.

"Hey guys, sorry I'm late." He apologised when he was close enough. "Valerie not here yet?" He asked though he wouldn't get an answer to that question as Tucker figuratively mobbed him immediately.

"DUDE! Have you seen the news?!" Tucker asked with way too much enthusiasm.

"News? What news?" Danny asked before Tucker's PDA was shoved under his nose. On it were pictures from various news sites and internet blogs. All of them displaying one thing… himself with only two words: He's back.

'Oh crap, that was fast.' He thought.

"He's here dude!" Tucker exclaimed. "The fucking Phantom is in Amity Park." He continued beginning to lean over Danny more and more. Even though the latter was slightly taller than him.

"Um, Tuck…" Danny asked uncertainly. He was helped out of his precarious position by Sam who pulled the overexcited techno-geek back in order to give the British nerd some room to breathe.

"Come on Tucker, back off." She chastised.

"Phew, thanks Sam." Danny thanked. "Ok Tucker, from the top please. Without taking in my breathable air?" He implored.

Just to be sure Sam held their friend by the shoulders to hold him in place. Tucker had been screaming about this against her for the past half hour, ever since he heard the news of what happened this morning actually. It was still hard to believe.

"So, you know legendary ghost hunter Phantom yes?" Tucker began. "Who am I kidding, you're British, of course you know him."

"Em…"

"So, he just appeared in the middle of a ghost fight close to the mall this morning. He was there!" Tucker gushed.

"Ghost fight?! Was anyone hurt?" Danny asked as he had no time to check this morning."

"See, finally a sensible reaction." Sam exclaimed. "You just keep blabbing on about the fact Phantom reappeared but do you even stop and think for a second about the consequences to life and environment?"

"Sam…" Danny interrupted.

"No-one was harmed today. Maybe minor psychological shock but that's about it." Sam said. "And judging by the size of that thing they fought and the damage done we can count ourselves luck. Things could've been much worse."

Danny exhaled in relief. "Phew, that's good news. So what about Phantom then?"

"Apart from the internet literally exploding…?" Sam inquired.

"Without that please." Danny said. "I have no doubt of the many theories that have begun to spring up from places I never wish to see." He joked.

Sam shuddered at the thought. "I'm with you on that. So Tucker, you may start your rant." She said.

Tucker immediately went full internet philosopher. "Okay, so Phantom vanished over a month ago from his usual hunting grounds in the UK." He began, receiving an eye roll from Sam for his choice of words. "For weeks all news remained silent around him and people began to wonder where he went. They even asked known ghost-hunters around the world, no-one knew where he went nor why." Danny chuckled lightly inside his head. Of course no-one knew, he made sure of that. "And then, out of nowhere he suddenly stands in front of a camera of Lance Thunder's news crew. And that's not all…"

"Oh, here we go again." Sam said rolling her eyes.

"Come on Sam, how would you explain it?" Tucker shot back. The two were about to launch in another argument if not for Danny clicking his fingers in front of their faces to get their attention.

"Hey, hey guys. Person that can't follow here." He cleared up.

Tucker turned back to him probably to explain some outrageous theory of him. "Okay so, you see Phantom wasn't alone. He seemed to be very conversational with…guess what: Red Huntress."

Danny shrugged. "And…"

"Obviously there's something going on between them!" Tucker exclaimed. "Think about it, Huntress started appearing a few months back. Phantom vanishes from London and travels here, he is very friendly with the Huntress even though they're both from different parts of the globe. Obviously there is a connection between the two."

"Not necessarily Tucker." Sam said.

"Then how do you explain the partnership between them?" Tucker digressed. "Phantom is known to be a loner."

"Hey guys, what's going on?" A newcomer asked. Valerie had finally arrived, and in the middle of a discussion about her alter ego at that.

"Tucker is freaking out about ghost-hunters." Danny informed.

"Ah, from the fight this morning?" She asked.

"Yup, and now he's trying to find an alleged link between Phantom and Huntress." Danny continued.

"Valerie, I want your opinion on this!" Tucker suddenly said once he noticed Valerie had arrived as well. "What do you think of this?"

"Um, what about it?" Valerie asked.

"About Phantom and the Huntress!"

"Well, the Huntress is cool I guess." Valerie said, her favouritism wasn't lost to Danny. "Phantom is more of an enigma."

"Sure, but have you seen what he did? I presume you saw the news footage didn't you?" Tucker asked receiving a nod from Valerie. Meanwhile Sam had walked up next to Danny and both were spectating on the spectacle. "There seemed to be something more between the two of them." Tucker continued.

"Tucker is really going for his theory." Danny said to Sam.

"As long as it isn't to me it's fine." Sam said.

"At least he's talking to her civilly." Danny remarked.

"Yes, there's that. You did good in that respect." Sam said.

"Told you so…"

Both Tucker and Valerie continued their argument while the group hung out around the city, Valerie managed to get some valid points in to defend the Huntress' ability. AKA herself. All in all it was a definite improvement of how they tended to interact with each other in the months before. They got along, and that was good enough for now.

 **So as some of you might have noticed I've update the previous chapters a bit. I've decided to change Danny's alter ego name back to Phantom, since I felt it rolled off the tongue better than what it was. As is the thing with writing, things can change mid development as they did here. You only see it because this is fanfiction and I'm terrible at finishing projects before publishing them. I just thought to let you guys know to minimize as much confusion as possible. Yeah, the creators of the original show were onto something when they chose the names to be honest.**

 **On another note I have a bit of a request, to gauge my level of writing especially the action scene in the beginning and the character interactions. I would really appreciate it if you could leave only a tiny little comment on the chapter. Just to see how I'm doing, thanks in advance.**


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